Alley Violinist

I must recommend this book to you. Good Poems, arranged by Garrison Keillor of NPR fame is a fantastic selection of poems that he read on the daily five-minute show The Writer's Almanac. The poetry is simple and beautiful; in Keillor's words, "The goodness of a poem is severely tested by reading it on the radio. The radio audience is not the devout sisterhood you find at poetry readings, leaning forward, lips pursed, hanky in hand; it's more like a high school cafeteria. People listen to poems while they're frying eggs and sausage and reading the paper and reasoning with their offspring, so I find it wise to stay away from stuff that is too airy or that refers off-handedly to the poet Li-Po or relies on your familiarity with butterflies or Spanish or Monet."

Thanks to my roommate for giving me this book after I coveted it for many months. Here is a selection I found and fell in love with this morning.

Alley Violinist
by Robert Lax

if you were an alley violinist

and they threw you money
from three windows

and the first note contained
a nickel and said:
when you play, we dance and
sing, signed
a very poor family

and the second one contained
a dime and said:
i like your playing very much,
signed
a sick old lady

and the last one contained
a dollar and said:
beat it,

would you:
stand there and play?

beat it?

walk away playing your fiddle?