Tom Lyford has original poetry books and memoirs for sale on-line, and offers poetry readings and workshops in northern New England...
  • Home
    • MISSION STATEMENT
    • MISSION RESTATEMENT
    • LIJAH
  • Hometown D-F
    • Dover-Foxcroft: the BORING FACTS yadda yadda
    • D-F IMAGES
    • DOVER-FOXCROFT...?
  • Poems
    • D-F POEMS >
      • THE ARRIVAL
      • FIRE AND ICE
      • GOOD OL BOYS
      • MASONRY
      • MERRICK SQUARE MARKET
      • PLEASANT STREET ELEMENTARY
      • THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD
      • THE PLEASANT STREET PHANTOM
      • MASONRY
    • CEREBRAL SIMILES >
      • EASTER PARADE
      • ALTERED STATES
      • TELEPHONE POLES
      • GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
      • MEMPHIS BELLE
      • THIS BODY?
      • THE BIG CHILL
    • JUKEBOX POETRY >
      • 102.5
      • INVITATION TO THE BLUES
      • JUKE BOX JOHNNY
      • REQUIEM
      • SPELLBOUND
      • WOLFEN
    • RUMINATIONS >
      • 3RD ROCK
      • I ROBOT
      • ORIENTATION
      • THE RIGHT STUFF
      • VECTOR ANALYSIS
    • NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE, TOTO >
      • EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS!!!
      • WITNESS PROTECTION COUNTY
      • TWO-HEADED MAN RUNS FOR MAYOR
      • THE STING
    • TRIBUTES >
      • TO LEONARD...
      • MR. SALINGER...
      • MIXIN' UP THE MEDICINE
      • RIDING AROUND IN STEPHEN KING
  • Prose
    • Man on the Flying Trapeze
  • Bio
  • Reviews
    • NO DAFFODILS REVIEW
    • PLAYING WITH FIRE
    • PLAYING WITH FIRE (Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards Commentary)
    • MY CINEMA PARADISO
    • KILROY WAS HERE and WORK AVERSION TRAUMA double-review
    • AMERICANA REVIEW
    • PLEASANT STREET REVIEW
  • Events
  • Influences
    • LITERARY
    • MOTIVATIONAL
    • BIZARRO
  • eMail
  • Buy
  • A / V
    • Video Catalogue
    • Audio
  • BLOG
  • Platonic Cave

THE ARRIVAL


Up here in the boondocks in the summer


of  '52, television was still out there

somewhere… somewhere else, but not

here… out there in New York, Boston…

but not here where radios ruled our

backwoods living rooms— consoles

 

big enough for Sidney Greenstreet

to hide behind. And like rumors of

war, there were whispers: It is coming…

 It was in the headlines, the editorials,

Television's on the way! It's almost here!

It was on the radio: Any day now!


And then one night just at dusk,


we spied the crowd gathered like

penguins in the snow out in front of

Ward's department store… everybody

gawking at a luminous little round

‘screen’ in the big picture window!

Dover-Foxcroft's Rogue Poet Laureate since... well, OK... only 2010