THOMPSONDALE

	By David Kherdian


	We will never leave the picnic
	at Thompsondale
	our mothers ever beautiful
	in their summer dresses
	Our fathers with straw hats
	and colored suspenders

	The blanket spread upon the meadow
	cane poles strung
	bobbers dancing over
	the slow moving stream

	The grape leaves gathered
	in the basket
	will never be taken home
	the sandwiches will be eaten
	again and again
	And clouds will gather and part
	the sun will rise and recede
	night will come
	And then tomorrow again and again


--
David Kherdian 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.