Hall, a former U.S. Poet Laureate and my long time pen pal, left Ann Arbor and his tenured professorship in 1975 and moved with his new wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, to the farmhouse in rural New Hampshire which his great-grandfather had bought in the early 1800’s.  Resolving to live on the proceeds of his free lance writing, Hall settled in for what would be the next 43 years of his long life producing 16 more books of poetry, essays about his farm at Eagle Pond and about aging, short stories, and his wonderful children’s books, including my favorites, “The Ox-Cart Man” and ” The Man Who Lived Alone.”

“Kicking the Leaves” was the first volume that followed his move to NH and it reflects that transition with several poems looking back to Ann Arbor and several others focused on his new home.  His love for his grandparents, the farm at Eagle Pond, and his new wife shine through even as he reflects back on the time in Ann Arbor, walking to football games, eating a pig at a BBQ, and the transition of his children to adulthood.

I’ve read this book several times before but always come away with some new appreciation for Hall’s skill in creating beautiful images like the smooth wood of the stalls in the horse barn, worn down from generations of work horses, “Roger, Mackerel, Riley, Ned, Nellie, Chester, Lady Ghost.”

Much honored in his life with the National Medal of Arts, the Caldecott Medal, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement, and others, I will remember him primarily as a friend who shared with me via our letters his love for the Red Sox, the rural town in NH where he lived, and for his forebears and neighbors.  Tragic that his passionate love affair with Jane Kenyon ended so soon.

Read Hall and savor the words, images, and places that he loved.  I’ve hyperlinked several of his poems from this book in the November Update accessible via www.thepoetrytreeonthecharles.com as well as via the web site www.epsteinreads.com.