BRUCE H. STANLEY
★ ★ ★ ★
POETRY
Patient Tree
patient
tree
staring
catatonic
from your
sterile linen
snow bed,
does your
with(in)drawn
sap still
remember
your manic autumn’s death-defiant
color-mad fevers?
(before Fall palsied
those phototropic fingers
into naked stark insanity)
in your winter asylum
how can you
ever conceive
Spring?
Bruce H. Stanley was a poet, musician, gifted songwriter, and professor of literature, composition and technical writing at Reading Area Community College from 1972 to 1997. He earned a Master’s Degree in English from Catholic University in Washington, DC, and studied linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He composed music and poetry for voice, piano, harmonica and his beloved Martin D-28 12-string guitar.
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A thousand thanks! It is a true blessing to see Bruce’s poem published in this edition of The Wild Word. Your generosity and support for poetry are rare gifts in this world.
Elizabeth–It saddens me greatly to learn that Bruce had passed away. He and I took many of the same classes at IUP in 1979-80. He was a good friend and a lively thinker–virtually a second graduate-level instructor in every class we had. As I am retiring from teaching now, I am appreciating all over again the people whose generous support and dedication to teaching and learning affected me most–none of them more than Bruce.
Thank you, Bill, for your kind words. I’m so glad you knew Bruce at IUP that year. He loved linguistics!
Elizabeth- I was a friend of Bruce’s in Salzburg in 1971 – I actually poured a libation for your healing at the temple of Athena . I talked to him shortly before my own marriage and learned of Erica and Brie. He was so happy with his life. I would love to read his poetry and share it with my husband and son. I am now 67, but at age 20, our sharing of song and music made my summer. My cell is 828.777.3479 and my email is: stparke@gmail.com. It would mean a great deal to talk to you.
My name is Susan Parke – my husband and I are criminal defense attorneys and erstwhile musicians in a small town in the Blue Ridge mountains, Saluda, NC