Roy S. Richardson

Putney, Vermont

Education: Putney School, Bard College, soldier WWII (3 1/2 years) University of Iowa. Master's thesis, original play. With wife, Dorothy, and child returned to Putney, VT, to write plays. Interruptions: Taught English, Drama at Kent School, Conn, 4 years. With friend established The Grammar School, Inc. Collaborated with Arthur Lithgow in starting The Brattleboro Center for the Performing Arts. Creations: Five more children, a novel, and five more plays, one an-off Broadway production, "Pequod". Others have been produced through The New England Playwriter's Guild locally and in the Boston area. Oh yes, I very much like to write poetry.

OF THINGS LARGE AND SMALL

In the blinking of an eye
On the vast eyelid plain.
The microscopic beast
Roared and stamped his foot
And in the millennium of his reign
Let fall his trunk into the dust.

In one far off place
A massive particle
Exploded into time
And began its journey outward
Until outer limits reached,
The coiling trunk receding,
Touched the moisture of his tongue.

CAT BIRD

You mimic the cat.
I know that.
You've a flicking tail
And short-hop wings that fly.
In your dark trim shades of grey
A dark jewel for an eye.

You're smart.
You play with old cat
---To be nice.
Otherwise
You don't sing the same song
Twice

You're friendly, cheerful
You even improvise close by,
But you don't look back
You see,
There's a reason
For that dark jewel for an eye.

That deep reflective eye,
As old as old cat's eye.
---An old bird's memory
of mistakes and false starts -
Ah- I know-
I see well enough
With my lusterless eye.

But your brown eyed memory
Makes you sing a new song.
You are born again You are youth!
As fresh and as strong as blue ice!
And your dark eyes glitter
And you never look back
You have learned what it's like
Born to live twice.