I Had Not Thought There Were So Many.(Poem)

 
I HAD NOT THOUGHT THERE WERE SO MANY 
(a review of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry 
edited by Billy Collins, Random House, 2003, about $25) 
 
   I had not thought there were so many 
   good poets in the States. 
 
   I don't say "Great"--but who are we 
   to make such shrill demands? 
 
   Their names I mostly haven't heard of 
   and probably will not recall, 
 
   heirs of Whitman, for the most part, 
   who've learned their craft in Iowa 
 
   or, if not, then in turn from those 
   who've done their time out there 
 
   under that unending sky, 
   deep amongst the corn. 
 
   Not having any large intention, 
   they track back softly through their lives, 
 
   discovering the poignant: 
   the parent's death, the teenage crush, 
 
   the first complete humiliation, 
   an old man silent on a bench, 
 
   a woman standing at the kerb, 
   ...