WINDOWS

	By David Kherdian

	  The best part of school
	was the window I looked
	out of?over the seen
	and imagine spaces
	there and beyond
	  The school bell never sounded
	or announced its arrival
	inside my head
	  I heard only the trees
	and birds singing
	and what the wind said
	  Across the schoolyard
	tenement noises
	with cars passing
	and talking trucks
	everywhere
	  The rag and tin man
	on his horse-driven cart
	and the excited fireman?s
	clang clang clang


--
David Kherdian's poems are from his 20th book of poems, forthcoming
from Taderon Press, London, in early 2006. He has published 63 books
in a variety of fields, including a Bibliography of William Saroyan,
three memoirs, fiction, retellings and translations, a life of the
Buddha, children's books and several biographies including The Road
From Home, for which he was awarded numerous awards and prizes,
including a Newbery Honor Book, The Jane Adams Peace Award, The Boston
Globe/Horn Book Award, and a nomination for the National Book Award.
Also, for one of his novels, he was given The Friends of American
Writers Award. In addition, he has edited nine anthologies, founded
three small presses, and he has been the editor of three journals,
including Ararat, Forkroads: A Journal of Ethnic-American Literature,
and Stopinder: A Gurdjieff Journal for Our Time. David is currently
editing a paper called The Tree, while compiling The Armenian-American
Writer: The First Generation, which will consist of novelists, short
story writers, playwrights, and poets, ranging over the last 82 years,
that will also feature essays on these writers by as many
second-generation Armenian-American writers.