Writings: Poetry – Richard D. Alexander

As RDA’s poetry is distributed among many books and unpublished works, here is an alphabetical list of his poems (gradually accumulating, now at 73). A reference is provided to the volume in which each published poem appears (see Writings for full volume pdfs), but a direct pdf of each poem is also provided.

“About Going All Alone” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“About the Social Contract” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“After Chickamauga” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“After decades rife with science strife…” [with peeking cricket drawing] (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]. [RDA also produced bookmarks with this poem and image, which were distributed with his books when gifted privately or ordered from Woodlane Farm: PDF (of bookmark)]
“After Two Months At Blackburn” (in Club 48) [PDF]
“A Funny Little Man I Knew” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“All I’m Tryin’ to Do is Change Your Mind” [song: with lyrics and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The ancient profs who never die…” (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“And the Dreamingest of Times” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [with three illustrations] [PDF]
“Another Boy’s Voice” (in Stealing Watermelons) [PDF]
“Arnie Beckett” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“At any given time between five and ten…” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Aubrey Hart – Museum Shop Man” (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“The Ballad of Bill Suiter” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Bivouac: 1951” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Billy E. Hardesty” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Bluey Morgan’s Mate” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Brumby” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Bushflies” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“The Butcher Bird and His Wife” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Cadence Calls” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Changing of the Seasons” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Charles Walker – Professor of Frogs’ Lives” (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“Claude Hibbard – Hibbie – Fossil Man” (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“A Common Sort of Man I Know” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Coober Pedy Pub” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Creating the Treasures of Your Truths and Mine (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Crows in Ann Arbor” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Dingo” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Destinos des Amantes” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Doctoral Student’s Candidacy Examination” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The East Pasture” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Edwin Mackey” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Emory Mulholland, Township Supervisor” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Epitaph” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Eternity for any man…” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Even We Two, Life Mate” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Evolution of Sterile Castes in the Social Insects: Kin Selection or Parental Manipulation?” (an academically peer-reviewed scientific statement in poetic form (!) in The Florida Entomologist vol. 57 issue 1 (1974), p.32.) [PDF]
“Exploring the Universe” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Folk Song” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“For Life to be Worthy” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“For Most” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Fort Knox: 1952” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Fred Parker’s Auction Sale” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Freshman’s Interlude with Coelenterata” [with background story] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Generation Gap – The Worth of Experience” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“God, Most Recently” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song; also as a prelude to chapter 14, “Evolution and Religion”, in his 2013 Festschrift) [PDF]
“Good Man Blues” [song: with lyrics and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“A Good Poem” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [Actually two poems meant to appear together, both on the topic of the definition of poetry; earlier versions have only the first under this title, and the second is called “Of Dawns and Decadence”. Followed by two dictionary definitions which likewise appear meant to be associated with the poem. Followed by “Music for the Soul” on the same topic.] [PDF]
“A Good Poem” (early version, unpublished) [PDF]
“Grandpa’s Radio” [song: with lyrics and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
A Haircut Poem: 1950″ (in The Mockingbird’s River Song)
[PDF]
“Heroes are Works of Art” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Hibbie: Fossil Man” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“How can I leave thee?…” [Ode to Blackburn] (in Club 48) [PDF]
“Humor and the Arts: Hypothesis” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“If Not in Years, Then How” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“I stopped beside the great osage corner post…” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Illinois Farmer” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“In an untended graveyard in central Illinois…” [Ode to Big Bluestem, with background story] (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“In the Outback” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Injustice” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“It is surely time for the adaptive structures…” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song; also in Notes on the Faculty, and as a postlude in “Religion, evolution, and the quest for global harmony” in his 2013 Festschrift) [PDF]
“It Was Not a Pretty Sight” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“I’ve been cautioned by some that my essay’s too dense…” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Janba’s Deed” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Just for Fun” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Just-So Story Revisited” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Karrie Tree Limerick” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“The Kumarina Pub” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Kybe Hartweg – Curator of Reptiles” (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“Last Night Autumn Became Winter” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Lawn Pride” [with background story] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Lenawee County” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Life Effort” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Lifetimes Are Not Measured In Years” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Lilac Time in Michigan (unpublished) [PDF]
“The Lion’s Den” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Love Poem to a Former Employee” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Major was a bay road horse…” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Me and Old Slim” [with background story] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Meaning of a Man” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [with background story and a quotation] [PDF]
“Memory of memory…” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Message to Naomi” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Motivation” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Moving Softly Through the Village” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Music for the Soul” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [follows the two-part “A Good Poem” with which it is associated and deals with the same topic of the definition of poetry.] [PDF]
“My Blue-Speckled Hound” (unpublished) [with introductory essay] [PDF]
“My Blue-Speckled Hound” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Nevada” [with background story] (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The New Chum and the Desert Water Bag” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“New Museum Folk Song” (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“A Note to Mitch” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Of Bliss and Ignorance” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Of Dawns and Decadence” [see “A Good Poem”]
“Of Routes and Ways” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Okefenokee” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Old Bloke” [song, original from 1968: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“The Old Bloke (reprise: 1998)” [song: with background story, lyrics, and melody line] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“The Old Man beside Me on the Bus in Montreal” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Old Tom the Townsville saddler…” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“On a May Day” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“One by One” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Only the Trees” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Out of the Heart of an Old Farmer” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“A Part of the Hunting” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“People! People!” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“A Place for Sam” [with drawing] (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“A Place to Know” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Prairie Lookout” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Publican at Eromanga” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“The Rabbit’s Heart” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [a prose poem] [PDF]
“Reality and the Human Enterprise” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Reality and the Human Social Enterprise” (unpublished) [PDF]
“The Red Spearhead” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“Reverse Reciprocity” [in memoriam William D. Hamilton, with background story] (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“Shiloh” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Some Later Australian Opinions” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Something About an Old Man” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Something Almost” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“The Song and Story of The Clarksburg Cat” [with background story] (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“The State of the Botanist: Telling It Like It Is” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Synergism: Ultimacy: Self” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Theodosius Dobzhansky” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Tiny Moth” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“To a Fly, Probing” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“To a Life Mate” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [to his wife Lorrie; the book is likewise dedicated to her] [PDF]
“Today and Tomorrow” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Today an Old Lady” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Tom Groomes” (in Pop’s Story) [PDF]
“The Trees in My Woods” (unpublished) [PDF]
“Tribute” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Tropical Trucks” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Two and a Half Per Cent” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“University Administrations” [for Billy E. Frye] (in Notes on the Faculty) [PDF]
“A Valley in New South Wales” (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“Wally’s eyes were an umber sparkle…” [the subject of this poem was painted by RDA, and is the book’s cover image] (in White Man’s Fire) [PDF]
“We’ll Be Reminded” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“When Eddie Died” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Where Cities Grow” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Winter: A Point of View” (in The Mockingbird’s River Song) [PDF]
“Writing Example: General Purpose Biology Report” (in Biology 494 Evolution & Human Behavior Coursepack, 1992) [A class assignment, followed by this facetious poetic example] [PDF]