“Yard Man” by Bill Hengst GCP’64 Gr’85 (Cover illustration by Carol Scott.)
The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Ginny Smith recently wrote about Bill Hengst GCP’64 Gr’85, a Penn alum and former city planner who is now “enjoying twin second careers as a professional gardener and writer of fiction, memoirs, and poetry.”
On Jan. 29, Finishing Line Press will publish Yard Man — a book of Hengst’s garden-themed poems. (The title comes from a childhood nickname Hengst’s father gave him.)
A few sample lines from the new book, via Smith:
In “It Might as Well Be Spring,” he writes about a red wheelbarrow left by the pond last fall. “Its carcass of handle and legs / is indistinguishable from the shrub bones / that survived winter’s wrack.”
In “Survivors,” the autumn landscape is “wild with brown,” covered with fallen leaves. “I root for those that swirl / through winter, surfing snow,” he writes.
You can read Smith’s full article here.