Shelley Reece

ON THE MARGIN

A mind
of winter
has wind 
and snow
along with
a crow
in a barren
tree there 
has to be
a  tree
even in
a desert
and a barren
tree needs 
a crow
don’t ask
where it
came from
so now
the crow
can call
or the tree
will perhaps
bloom

Shelley Reece, PhD 1967 U. of Nebraska, retired from 43 years of college and university teaching as Professor of English, with 33 of those years at Portland State University—six as Director of Composition and six as Department Chair.  His specialties, writing and contemporary lit, led him to the notebooks, letters, and manuscripts of the English novelist Paul Scott, author of The Raj Quartet.  Reece’s research led to a collection of Scott’s ungathered essays, My Appointment with the Muse. Late in his teaching career, Reece became interested in adding his voice to the community of poets.  After retirement, he served on the Board of The Friends of William Stafford for thirteen years, five of those years as Chair.  In June, 2014, he completed an MFA in poetry from Pacific University, Forest Grove.  He lives in Garden Home, a Portland, Oregon suburb, with his wife, Mary, and their rescue cat, Cardi.