Letter to David Walker, March, 1974

March 12, 1974
Route 6 Box 342
Rogers, Arkansas 72756

Dear David,

Your gracious letter is kindly accepted. One beautiful poem, too. I do like it when the longer line is used. So many poets are unwilling to let it flow, longer line, or longer poem, dependent on the shorter typewriting. Yes, that's a fine poem, and I hope alot of folks will get to read it someday. The longer the days, the longer I'm in the field; as soon as I get home, my wife and I work in the garden. (According to Henry Field Seed Catalog, you are in a late planting zone, but I'm sure you can get flats in early.) We hope to have peas, beans, turnips, collards, corn, potatoes, raddishes, lettuce, tomatoes, beans (soy), mushrooms, honey dew melons, strawberries, and 12 or fifteen kinds of herbs.

The weather is better, warmer, so we don't use as much wood. I sort of miss the days spent at home and the cold nights I stayed up late. The winter is a good time to write, at least for me.

Yes, we see alot of homestead people, from all over. Most of them have enough money to make it, some just blow through. I don't know any, just see them. I'd rather have them buying the land, and not the development companies. The Dogwoods, plums, and redbuds are coming out, as are the fire in the bush, forsythia, and something else I can't ever remember the name of.

As I'm in bed with the flu, today, I hope to catch up on some correspondence. It is funny that you should mention Thomas Johnson and his book, and his magazine Stinktree. I'd not heard of any of the latter, but I was curious about Ironwood Press being the same as Michael Cuddihy's Ironwood Magazine. He has just taken alot of my work.

Anyway, I sent some translations of Cocteau, Prevert, Pasolini, and Bertolucci to Johnson and he accepted them. I've yet to tell him, in a return letter, that you are the one who first mentioned him to me. I think he is from Memphis, not Arkansas.

I just got a letter from Alan D. with a poem almost as good as yours. I do like to receive poems this way.

I imagine I better get a little sleep so I can get over this illness—My best to you and your family. Good luck in the garden.

Yours,

Frank

David Walker