Irene Keller
November 8, 2026
for Milton Jordon
Once on a late September afternoon
then on an early October evening
supper finished, and the day a bit cooler
dinner dishes done; hills beckoned
we avoided another evening’s news
no need for media political updates
took the trail out around the near dry pond
hiked to the mesquites and the oaks
and turned west beyond a small cedar grove
went to a favored ancient rock to sit,
to see the sun falling below our view
to welcome the dusk softening the day,
as a fading sky exposed the last quarter
the sliver of light waiting to be noticed
of an old moon we’d seen new three weeks before
to remind us to recall “Hill Country Dusk.”
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“His Poetry Influenced My October Muse” can be read in various ways: read as separate poems, Jordon’s poem on the left, my response poem on the right, or read Jordon’s first, followed with reading my poem as an extension of his, or read horizontally as one poem. Which way one may choose to read the poem(s), the intertextuality of the poems is meant to honor Jordon and his poem, “Hill Country Dusk.”
Irene Keller, a retired educator, was able to spark students’ interest in poetry. Past or present, she has always had poetry in her life: past she taught poetry; present she writes poetry. Some of her poems have appeared in Texas Poetry Assignment, The Senior Class:100 Poets on Aging, Wild Roses anthology, Cody Enterprise and Owen Wister Review.
