born the last of five children,
steamer bound for America,
the boy had nothing inside but a note
stuck in his shoe, the desperate hope
of a mother captured by death, her little ones
doomed to slavery in boot camps of industry,
not one blade of grass
could they see, but Padgett hoped,
reading mother’s words, hiding
beneath scrap, in a little niche.
travels took him to the army base
sergeant lifted him free,
begged his name,
then useful times
eclipsed the bad,
studying hard,
learning things his mother
drempt, his mind a deep conch shell,
collecting, collecting, and reaching
other messages clattering along
the wire, making others
listen to his own depictions
of graveyards, soup kitchens
in towns he visualized from maps
deciphered, doing the good
his mother knew he could.
From the author of Jupiter Remembered and Until It’s Time: Embracing Life In Our Later Years comes Petals of Love: Poetry of a Woman’s Soul – a heartfelt collection spanning more than thirty-five years. Through tender reflections, these poems offer g
Early Works is an exhaustive compilation of the first decade of the poems and stories of Z.B.McClure. Included are family photos, rare personal photos, photos of 1st draft manuscripts of many of his early poems. Also some biography and memoir materia
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