Born Powell, Wyoming,1915, Alan Swallow died Denver,Colorado,1966. During his fifty-one years, he did much: Ph.D. at Louisiana State University, technical sergeant in the Army during World War II, professor of English (Denver University), publisher (Swallow Press & Sage Books), husband and father, and poet.
	Vintage Colorado Poetry National Poetry Month Poem of the Week April 18, 2005
	Return to the West The Rockies rise, unforgettable and alone: The sawteeth stand in eastern light: how bare They are! except for pine and miserable sage How waste and waterless! And people live there. Returning, would we search among the bones Of earth, for flesh the coyotes left to steam And rot beneath the sun? Some grinning thing That housed once joy, debate, and some old dream? Wind raises in the pines its easy song: As readily men came to turn new land Here where the conquerors fed. For Mexico, Peru, Alaska, their bright contraband Was soon gone---and better gone. And what the        hawk Will leave, there was the place for care and plow. The plunder finally taken was not much For pride, but it is rich, is richest now. If old Jim Bridger lies uneasy, Custer With the golden hair, it is a pity. The earth Has had them long enough, and those who lost The Johnson County war, to know their worth. Now as the day and night return the silt Of time, and now return the wanderers--- If these in pines renounce their former guilt, Even the prodigal the earth endures.                           --Alan Swallow Reprinted from The Remembered Land by Alan Swallow. The Press of James A. Decker, Prairie City, Illinois, 1946. Copyright 1946 by Alan Swallow.  [Prefatory Note: The following collection of poems is the first collection I put together. It was assembled in the spring of 1942.  A. S.] Used with the permission of Karen Swallow. Home Archives Previous Poem of the Week