No Idea of Order in Any Key

a short poem I wrote about Wallace Stevens in January 2002.

Wallace Stevens wrote
about singing in "a world" that
only "singing, made."--_1

He was a lawyer.
He was an insurance company executive.
He went home in a suit and tie
to write poems because he
wanted to be a poet.


_1). the title refers to, and the stanza one quote is from, "The Idea of Order at Key West," by Wallace Stevens, "Ideas of Order," from "The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens," page 130, (Vintage, New York) 1990.