The graduate philosophy department at the University
of Virginia emphasized analytic philosophy.

In Charlottesville, at twenty-one, I was
Assigned to write a paper on value:
What is value? Something that something has,
A property? Product of a point of view?
A measurement, perhaps, or function of—
What? I was working on a PhD.
I had long hair. We value what we love,
I thought (minutes before love became free).
My bangs fell to my eyes. I was sitting
At a small Formica table, legal pad
In hand, when it struck me I’d be quitting
School soon. I love philosophy but had,
I saw, no way within the practice of it
To say I value it because I love it.