Subject Matter

The critic asked, what are
the subjects
that interest you most in
writing
That is easy, I tell her
Women
men
and children
tables
benches or broken chairs
biscuits--cow butter
fried eggs--soft
strong coffee
cream
plum jelly--apricot jam
The Sierra Nevada, awake or
in polluted dreams
knee-high poppies in the far-off
pure hard
days of 1936-37-38-39-40

Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel at 50 years of age, on the steps of the ‘F’ Street house in Tulare, California. In 1971 at age 53, Wilma made what she recalled was a fateful decision: she carried a shoebox full of poems into the office of Tom Hennion, editor of the Tulare Advance-Register, whose policy was to not publish poetry. An exception was made, and her poems began appearing regularly in its pages. In two years time, she would publish her first book,The Carousel Would Haunt Me. Subject Matter first appeared in The Last Dust Storm © 1995, Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel.  (back)