title: The Puzzle Master and Other Poems
author:  F D Reeve 
description: Born in Philadelphia but brought up outside New York City, a devoted pupil of the poet-critic R.P. Blackmur, and now himself a poet-critic retired from Wesleyan University and living in Vermont, F. D. (Frank) Reeve has long been regarded&#8212;to quote Robert Giroux&#8212;as "one of America's most gifted and individual poets." He first visited Russia as an exchange scholar with the Academy of Sciences the year before his famous trip with Robert Frost. Recently, he has made his sassy alter ego, the Blue Cat, an outspoken prowler for justice. Reeve's numerous translations from Russian were honored in 2007 when he was invited to Moscow to give the keynote address at the International Conference of Translators of Russian Literature. His dozen books of poetry, his novels, and his short stories about his work on the New York docks have won him an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Golden Rose of the New England Poetry Club, and a LittD. from New England College.
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  ![](images/00003.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  OUTSIDE THE CAVE, THE THUNDER CRASHED.
  
  Reeve looked down at me. His face was wet. Drops clung to his lashes. He said,
  “Do you know, I’ve been thinking, Deb, that perhaps our getting married
  wouldn’t be so terrible a thing after all.”
  
  I stared at him in astonishment.
  
  “Think about it yourself,” he urged. ”I would get my money, and you“—he gave
  me a charming, crooked smile—”you would get all the horses you wanted to
  ride.”
  
  I pulled his wet jacket more closely around me and said impatiently, “Reeve,
  there is more to marriage than that.”
  
  “I know there is.” The sound of the rain beating on the rocks of the shore was
  very loud. Reeve took out his damp handkerchief, took my chin in his hand, and
  carefully dried my upturned face. Then he said coaxingly, “I think you and I
  would deal together very well in other ways, too, Deb.”
  
  He bent his head, and a crack of thunder split the heavens …
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE ARANGEMENT
  
  “JOAN WOLF NEVER FAILS TO DE