Excerpt from

Gazing Down the Fairway, I Think of Po Chu-i



to Gary Lemons


I've thought of you often enough, old friend,
on the rolling fairways of Chevy Chase
during all those long years you didn't play.
Now old and gray, unable to walk the course,
I stand behind you again, recalling
the ancient Chinese sages who checked my
swing and kept my score card the first ten years
I played. Golf is Zen. Throw the score card out
or keep it like a flower. Mulligans
are nourishment when forgiveness is required.


Sam Hamill at The Academy of American Poets

POETS AGAINST THE WAR