Lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in retirement after a long career, first as a journalist and later as a developer of health maintenance organizations (HMO's). He has written and published verse, often under pseudonyms, for more than fifty years, but his first collection in book form will shortly appear under a title taken from the poem printed here: Yesterday or Long Ago, (Clock & Rose Press, Inc. of Harwich Port, MA.)

Out of sleep, from half-remembered dreams
composed of sweet and bitter memories long out of mind
we rise an hour before the city wakes
and walk through alleys, seeking unfamiliar streets.
These houses, windows shuttered, blinds and curtains drawn,
give heavy sense of people sleeping in dim rooms;
of one, or two perhaps, awake but still undressed,
who sit in gloom, taste last night’s tea, and read again
the letter that came yesterday, or long ago.

Copyright © 2004 James W. Clements