Unpublished poem given to Southeast's Kent Library

Author and Rolla, Mo., native Michael Lund, will present a signed manuscript of an unpublished poem by legendary American poet William Carlos Williams tonight at Kent Library. He will present the poem alongside his brother, Carl Lund of Albuquerque, N.M.

The poem, "About a Little Girl," was written for Lund's mother decades ago when, as a child, she suffered from leukemia and was thought to be dying. Williams was a family doctor.

The "little girl" would go on to survive the disease and live for another 50 years. Lund, who was invited to Southeast Missouri State University by visiting professor of English William Frank, thought the university to be a fitting home for the poem.

"When Bob Hamblin gave my brother and me a tour of Southeast's Faulkner Center last fall, he put in our hands a book inscribed by Albert Einstein to William Faulkner. I was struck at that moment by the degree to which this university values books, literature, and learning. Because our mother, who is the subject of the Williams poem, lived for more than 50 years in Rolla, it also seemed appropriate that the manuscript find a home in Missouri," said Lund in a statement to the university.

The ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. today in Sadie's Place in Kent Library. Admission is free.

Williams, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was born in Rutherford, N.J., in 1883, and spent most of his life there. He died in 1963. Among other things he is remembered for an epic work, "Paterson," a multi-volume series of poems that employ innovative poetic techniques to describe the ordinary lives of working class Americans.

A 1923 poem of his, since anthologized and read in many freshman English course title: "The Red Wheel Barrow," runs a mere 16 words and shows Williams' sparse style. It reads:

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

Lund is a professor of English at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., and the author of seven novels about life along Missouri Route 66. He will discuss these books, read passages and answer questions at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Cape Girardeau Public Library at 711 Clark St.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245