Skip to page navigation menu Skip entire header
Brown University
Skip 34 subheader links

Poetry from the Age of Mass Incarceration

Green

Yesterday there was a winter willow in my eyes.
Today there is a silver bird hopping around there.
It has an ocean between its feathers
and I see myself reflected:
I am smiling with a pencil in my hands.

Beneath my feet is brown grass
Maybe some oxen came this way once.

J. Charles Green. First Words (1975)

Book cover for First Words by J. Charles Green. Abstract drawing of a face.
A letter about J. Charles Green.