The Forgotten Man Behind William Carlos Williams’s ‘Red Wheelbarrow’ - The New York Times

William Carlos Williams was a physician, a caring man, who examined patients the old fashioned way: listening, touching.  His plain and powerful poetry demonstrates those virtues and talents.  The three poems below, old favorites of mine, show his empathy.   William Logan, a Florida English professor who cared, has tracked down the owner of the red wheelbarrow of which Dr. Williams wrote.

 On July 18, in a moment of belated poetic justice, a stone will be laid on the otherwise unmarked grave of Thaddeus Marshall, an African-American street vendor from Rutherford, N.J., noting his unsung contribution to American literature.

The Forgotten Man Behind William Carlos Williams’s ‘Red Wheelbarrow’ - The New York Times by Jennifer Schleussler

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

TO A POOR OLD WOMAN 

munching a plum on

the street a paper bag 

of them in her hand 

They taste good to her

They taste good

to her. They taste

good to her

You can see it by 

the way she gives herself 

to the one half 

sucked out in her hand 

Comforted 

a solace of ripe plums 

seeming to fill the air 

They taste good to her

An Exercise 

Sick as I am

confused in the head

I mean I have

endured this April

so far

visiting friends

returning home

late at night

I saw

a huge negro

a dirty collar

about his

enormous neck

appeared to be

choking

him

I did not know

whether or not

he saw me though

he was sitting

directly

before me how

shall we 

escape this modern

age

and learn

to breathe again

William Carlos Williams