Why He Doesn't Sleep

Why He Doesn't Sleep: The Selected Poems of Stephen Gardner collects the best poetry of an underappreciated writer, an extremely popular professor whose teaching inspired many students to become serious poets themselves. Gardner was known to invest himself in helping others more than in his own work, and so this overdue collection offers exposure to an interesting, variegated, and genuinely passionate writer.GOING HOMEDown the road, lying with my facePressed into my father's lap, the wheelHe held claiming most of the space.But I squeezed in, bending upMy knees, with the rest of my formOn the seat and in my mother'sLap, not comfortable, but warm.And they would sing togetherOld songs. And I still can feelTheir soft strong hands on me againAnd the cold hard turning of the wheel.