Cento XI

We came out here almost two years ago
& are glad we did.
           By the winter of 1949-1950
I would have settled for Atchison
                        or Lone Pine, Ark.,
it had gotten that unappetizing.
I have the best damned place to work
in I’ve ever had—a moderate-sized room
at the back of the house, with a crummy
floor that I don’t mind dripping paint
onto & good space & light.

The grim facts must be faced:
           we like it out here enormously
& our all too infrequent throbbings
of nostalgia, so far as the East,
relate to folks such as you & Mary
&not to the locus or its geist.

One afternoon Tony & I climbed down
a mountain back of their house to the ocean
& saw a sealion swimming & a huge rock
covered with cormorants, all in profile
& looking like society ladies in black
at a swank opening.

             Various vistas opening up here.

Hope all goes well & that the storm
                                   spared you both.
I wish you all the best with your marriage.
Ann sends her love. Write soon.