"Black Mountain"- Robert Creely

Robert Creeley was born May 21, 1926 and died March 30, 2009. He was a black mountain poet.

"America"
America, you ode for reality!
Give back the people you took.

Let the sun shine again
on the four corners of the world

you thought of first but do not
own, or keep like a convenience.

People are your own word, you
invented that locus and term.

Here, you said and say, is
where we are. Give back

what we are, these people you made,
us, and nowhere but you to be. 

In This form of poetry, every line is supposed to get to the point and only take one breath to read. "Projective Verse" was made by Charles Olson, another Black Mountain poet, and served as a sort of manifesto to all black mountain poets. "America" follows that manifesto because it leads a reader to a certain perception, which then leads to further perception. Also, you can say every line in one breath and every line is short. Robert Creeley was a professor at other colleges also. He was awarded the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.