[He Lived—Childhood Summers]

By Lorine Niedecker
He lived—childhood summers
    thru bare feet
then years of money’s lack
    and heat

beside the river—out of flood

    came his wood, dog,
woman, lost her, daughter—
    prologue

to planting trees. He buried carp

    beneath the rose
where grass-still
    the marsh rail goes.

To bankers on high land

    he opened his wine tank.
He wished his only daughter
    to work in the bank

but he’d given her a source

    to sustain her—
a weedy speech,
    a marshy retainer.

Lorine Niedecker, "He Lived Childhood Summers" from Collected Works, edited by Jenny Penberthy.
Copyright © 2002 by the Regents of the University of California. Reprinted with the permission of
the University of California Press.

Source: Collected Works (The University of California Press, 2002)

Niedecker was born in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and lived in this wilderness area for most of her
life. She lived a quiet life far removed from the professional poetry world, where she wrote hundreds
of poems remarkable for their loving observation of nature and delicate musicality. Ever increasing
in popularity, her finely-honed verse speaks to readers in a delightful, distinctive voice.
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