Theodore Roethke




Reply to a Lady Editor

If the Poem (beginning “I knew a woman, lovely in her
bones”) in The London Times Library Supplement has
not appeared here, we offer you $75 for it. Could you wire
us collect your answer? 
                                                                 Sincerely yours, 
                                                                   Alice S. Morris 
                                         Literary Editor, Harper’s Bazaar
 
Sweet Alice S. Morris, I am pleased, of course,
You take the Times Supplement, and read its verse,
And know that True Love is more than a Life-Force
---And so like my poem called Poem.

Dan Cupid, I tell you’s a braw laddie-buck;
A visit from him is a piece of pure luck,
And should he arrive, why just lean yourself back
---And recite him my poem called Poem.

O print it, my dear, do publish it, yes,
That ladies their true nature never suppress,
When they come, dazedly, to the pretty pass
---Of acting my poem called Poem.

My darling, my dearest, most-honest-alive,
Just send me along that sweet seventy-five;
I’ll continue to think on the nature of love,
---As I dance to my poem called Poem.