Incantation for a New Coat

NOTES 'Louis Simpson, Selected Poems (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1965), p. 111. 'References to "some old love letters. . .a log chain" anticipate poems I have occasionally read in connection with these comments: "Aunt Vi" (from Dialogue With a Dead Man), "A House of Readers" and "How America Came to the Mountains" (from The Mountains Have Come Closer) and, for the carpenter's level and the small farm, "His Mother's Story," an uncollected poem, and "Small Farms Disappearing in Tennessee" (in Voices From the Hills, Robert J. Higgs and Ambrose Manning, eds. (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., in cooperation with Appalachian Consortium Press, 1975). ! The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969), p. 348. "'The American Scholar, I" in American Literature: Tradition and Innovation, Harrison T. Meserole, Walter Sutton, and Brom Weber, eds. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath & Co., 1969), Vol. 1, pp. 961-75. 'Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology (New York: Collier Books, 1962), p. 204. 'William Stafford used this phrase in a reading with comments at Western Kentucky University in the spring of 1973. 'Charles Guthrie, Riddles From the Cumberland Valley. Kentucky Folklore Series, No. 5 (Bowling Green, Ky., 1973), p. 15. 'Edwin Newman, Strictly Speaking: Will America Be the Death of English? (New York: Warner, 1975), p. 177. •William A. McCaIl, / Thunk Me a Thaut (New York & London: Teachers College Press, 1975), p. 6. "7 Have a Place, Jim Wayne Miller, ed. (Pippa Passes, Ky.: Appalachian Learning Laboratory, 1981), p. 169. "Martin Buber, / and Thou (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), p. 18. "Richard Selzer, Moral Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977), pp. 76-77. "Coleman Barks, The Juice (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), pp. 8,21. ""Freckles" and "Stitches" are in I Have a Place, pp. 172-73. April Leidig's "Fingernail," Russ Smith's poem by the same title, and Eddie Darin's "Fingertips" were written in poetry-in-the-schools sessions in Washington County, Virginia schools in the late 1970s. ""The Poet," in American Literature: Tradition and Innovation , Vol. 1, p. 1002. "These explanations appeared in an Associated Press story that ran in many newspapers in the late seventies, and even became part of a late night talk show host's material. "X.J. Kennedy, An Introduction to Poetry (Boston: Little , Brown and Company, 1966), p. 235. "Ibid., p. 234. INCANTATION FOR A NEW COAT Broom. Broom. Sweep the loom. Break the warp of yesterday. Broom, broom. Clean the corner. Make a place for my new love. Robin. Robin. Twirl the bobbin. Whirl the bobbin. Sing! Sing! Robin, robin. Fill the bobbin. Turn the black sheep's wool to gold. Rittle, rüttle. Throw the shuttle. Warm the wool with April sun. Rittle, rüttle. Scent of violets For the neck of his new coat. Linger, linger, on my finger. Little ring all shiny bright. Linger, linger, all my love In this coat of black sheep's wool. —Bettie Sellers 23 ...