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Larry Beckett’s poetry ranges from brief lyrics and songs to blank sonnets and book-length narrative works. His work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Salamander, and FIELD. Three book-length poems have been published, Paul Bunyan, by Smokestack Books, Wyatt Earp, by Alternating Current Press, and Amelia Earhart, by Finishing Line Press, with strong reviews in Zyzzyva. This text, along with others, is part of an epic, American Cycle, published by Running Wild Press. The Book of Merlin is out from Livingston Press, and Song to the Siren is forthcoming from Halbaffe Press.

61

Larry Beckett

On that cracked highway, old song, I was
burning up in the white Chevy, eighty-four
east, cutting through Cascades, up river,
the way the salmon, eleven falls, no home,
no milk and honey, doing seventy, into
summer, the water washing, whitecaps,
nothing, memory, on the bad faith radio,
up trail, art of the sonnet, wavering, no,
yes, the light and illusion failing, empty
waste, empty farms, empty woods, over
Blue Mountains, south to Baker, cloud
cover, flagpole, tower, the white houses,
the Western Motel, opening the book
of absurdity: that artery, cross-country.

— Larry Beckett

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