I don’t mean to say
There weren’t good times.
The bad predominated.
Booze helped immensely.
Work also, but not,
Unfortunately, writing.
Friends and parties and lovers
Lent ease to my unease
Sparingly. The doctors kept
The anxious pot aboil.
So passed the years.
--Hayden Carruth, AM'47
Read about Carruth’s long road to literary laurels