Garrison Keillor

Just finished your wonderful book Homegrown Democrat. Wish to hell the Dems took your first couple of chapters and turned ‘em into stump speeches. (Kerry is burying himself through sheer dullness.) Anyway, I thought you would enjoy a poem written by Eugene McCarthy in his book “Groundfog and Night.” Maybe you’ve read it. It’s entitled “Courage at Sixty.”

Now it is certain.
There is no magic stone,
No secret to be found.
ONe must go
With the mind’s winnowed learning,
No more than the child’s handhold
On the willows bending over the lake,
On the sumac roots at the cliff edge.
Ignorance is checked.
Betrayals scratched.
The coat has been hung on the peg,
The cigar laid on the table edge,
The cue chosen and chalked,
The balls set for the final break.
All cards drawn,
All bets called.
The dice, warm as blood in the hand,
Shaken for the last cast.
The glove has been thrown to the ground,
The last choice of wweapons made.

A book for one thought,
A poem for one line.
A line for one word.

“Broken things are powerful.”
Things about the break are stronger still.
The last shot from the brittle bow is truest.

GOD BLESS YOU MY FRIEND.