A medical doctor his whole life in Patterson New Jersey, he was a frequent visitor to Greenwich Village where he hung out with other creative minds. He was one of America's greatest poets. He was a close friend since their university days with Ezra Pound who was a big supporter, and later with Wallace Stevens. T.S. Eliot, a more formally trained poet and literary critic, was never a fan of William's vernacular, less polished style. On opposite poles of the spectrum with regard to form, The two did not get along.

The Term

A rumpled sheet
Of brown paper
About the length

And apparent bulk
Of a man was
Rolling with the

Wind slowly over
And over in
The street as

A car drove down
Upon it and
Crushed it to

The ground. Unlike
A man it rose
Again rolling

With the wind over
And over to be as
It was before.