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C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Williams

Charles Kenneth Williams was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 4, 1936. He spent his childhood in South Orange, New Jersey and after high school in Maplewood he attended Bucknell College where he played basketball,

Gaffe, The

by C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Williams (1936–2015)

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16

If that someone who's me yet not me yet who judges me is always with me,

as he is, shouldn't he have been there when I said so long ago that thing I said?

If he who rakes me with such not trivial shame for minor sins now were there then,

shouldn't he have warned me he'd even now devastate me for my unpardonable affront?

I'm a child then, yet already I've composed this conscience-beast, who harries me:

is there anything else I can say with certainty about who I was, except that I, that he,

could already draw from infinitesimal transgressions complex chords of remorse,

and orchestrate ever-undiminishing retribution from the hapless rest of myself?

The son of some friends of my parents has died, and my parents, paying their call,

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Poets Book of Days

November 4

C. K. Williams born, 1936

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

Who has been identified as Europe's first professional female writer?

Answer

Christine de Pisan developed her reputation as a writer from 1399 to 1430. Born in Venice, she worked for the king of France as an astrologer, physician and alchemist. Aphra Behn is considered one of the first English women to be a professional writer.

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