Nature Sonnet

I sent a poem to a magazine

     And after waiting twenty days or so

  (Why it was kept so long I do not know)

I got it back with just a slip between,

And on the slip was written by some one green:

     “This is too good to keep.” Gee, I was sore

     And said I’d never send them any more,

Because I thought they’d meant to use me mean.

But after thinking over it a bit

     I saw it in a vastly different light;

And so I wrote this note to go with it,

     And mailed it at the village store that night:

“This poem is too good to keep, you say?

That’s why I sent it back to you today!”

c. Jan. 25, 1917