Bonus poem on the 50th anniversary of the death of Robert Frost, 1/29/13

(I wrote this on the 50th anniversary of Robert Frost's death, after hearing that earlier in the day, the Friends of Robert Frost had met at the Old First Church, Bennington, Vermont, where Frost is buried in the surrounding cemetery.  Thousands of people visit the historic church and cemetery each year, and part of the conversation that day was about why people still leave coins on the top of the Frost gravestone.)

                                                      Main Quadrangle, Amherst College,

across from the Frost Library

In Bennington I hear they wonder

Why people give where I’m down under;

It seems on top, they coins distribute,

Perhaps they leave them there as tribute,

Because they read a poem that likely

Made them think more eruditely,

Or they remember now, but wrongly,

A line about which they feel strongly,

Such as good fences make good neighbors,

Misapprehending all my labors;

Of course, the coins of no devotee

Can reach the place where now I lay me;

I think I’m paid by my inspiring

Some student in their life’s inquiring

To live with wonder and with feeling,

And not find coins all that appealing.

Scott L. Barton

Amherst, Massachusetts, January 29, 2013