I let most all things in to peek this way,
For a lingering cup of thoughtful tea.
But I’ve got gulls in mind this Forever day,
One gull will stay, quite still, in time’s small lee.
For a lingering cup of thoughtful tea.
But I’ve got gulls in mind this Forever day,
One gull will stay, quite still, in time’s small lee.
From the Introduction
Eleven months after Ned passed on, his wife Carla discovered a small treasure in his office: a decades-old folder with poems and a short story he had written on a typewriter back in the 1960s and 70s, with some poems possibly from into the early 80s.
Also in the folder were Tables of Contents from high school (Belmont Hill School) and college (Yale) literary publications in which Ned was published, though the pieces themselves were not in the folder. After a bit of hunting, Carla reached the necessary archivists and librarians at those institutions who enthusiastically hunted down the missing items listed in the TOCs Ned had saved. Ned’s inner writer made itself known at an early age: his 2nd grade teacher wrote on his report card, “[Ned] has a vivid imagination and is gifted in story writing and poetry.” His opinion piece while at Yale, The Writing Gap in the English Department, not only reflects his desire to develop his writing skills, but reveals a young man on a path to teaching in a variety of capacities. In his adult life, one of Ned’s passions was encouraging and mentoring young people with an interest in writing, which he did for many in traditional school settings, individually and in groups. |
[Ned's] short stories, especially the one about the boy who enlisted into the Marines to fight in Vietnam, were unbelievably good. When I read his prose, his novels, I feel as if I've stepped back in time. His poetry is like touching a nice piece of old wood on the side of a house, or feeling the soft texture of a well worn leather jacket. - a reader |