Barbara Daniels’ Comments

I wrote “Television, 1955” in response to a prompt given by Peter Murphy at one of his Getaways (held each January in Cape May, New Jersey). As the poem relates, my parents didn’t allow television in our house, so I was mesmerized when I watched TV at my friend Margo’s house. I do buy my own books when they show up on remainder tables, as “Assorted Hurts” suggests. “Running” is about one of my health emergencies—that time, ovarian cancer—but at the moment my health is good. It’s all good, isn’t it? The knotted web of memory, a butterfly sunning on the pathway, an open book in our hands.


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