The complete poetry of James Hearst / edited by Scott Cawelti ; foreword by Nancy Price.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hearst, James, 1900-1983.

Contributor:

Cawelti, G. Scott.

Standardized Title:

Poems. 2001

Language:

English

Physical Description:

xxxvii, 523 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2001]

Summary:

Part of the regionalist movement that included Grant Wood, Paul Engle, Hamlin Garland, and Jay G. Sigmund, James Hearst helped create what Iowa novelist Ruth Suckow called "a poetry of place". A lifelong Iowa farmer, Hearst began writing poetry at age nineteen and eventually wrote thirteen books of poems, a novel, short stories, cantatas, and essays, which gained him a devoted following. Many of his poems were published in the regionalist periodicals of the time, including the Midland, and by the great regional presses, including Carroll Coleman's Prairie Press.

Drawing on his experiences as a farmer, Hearst wrote with a distinct voice of rural life and its joys and conflicts, of his own battles with physical and emotional pain (he was partially paralyzed in a farm accident), and of his own place in the world. His clear eye offered a vision of the midwestern agrarian life that was sympathetic but not sentimental -- a people and an art rooted in place.

Contents:

A journeyman takes what the journey will bring

Nineteen Twenty-Four

The Isle of the Setting Sun 3

The Painter 5

Voices 6

Nineteen Twenty-Five

Part of an Eternal Dialogue 6

Nineteen Twenty-Six

Around the Bend 7

The Burden 8

The Contract 9

The Experiment 9

In April 10

The Reason for Stars 10

Nineteen Twenty-Seven

Beauty 11

Belief 11

Nineteen Thirty

Frost 12

Nineteen Thirty-One

The Body of One 13

Country Men 13

Nineteen Thirty-Two

Clover Swaths 14

Robin in the Straw 15

Seeding 16

Nineteen Thirty-Five

The Grail 17

Nineteen Thirty-Six

Dead Crows 18

Everything was just barely enough

Nineteen Thirty-Seven

Barns in November 21

Blue Again 22

Cows Bawl on Sunday 22

Fall Plowing 23

Farm on a Summer Night 23

First Snow 24

The Forest 25

The Movers 26

Now I Have Taken to the Fields 27

Plowman 27

Reflection 28

Seventy Times Seven 28

Sparrows in Spring 29

Summer Rain 29

Theology 30

The Warning Cry 30

Winter Field 31

Nineteen Thirty-Eight

Dark Flower 31

Evening 32

When a Neighbor Dies 33

Winter Solstice 34

Nineteen Thirty-Nine

March Mourning 34

On Relief 35

Spring West of Town 35

Nineteen Forty

After the Son Died 36

False Warning 37

Invocation 38

Meeting a Pheasant Hunter in Our Grove 39

Quarrel 40

The Same in This as Other Lands 40

The Sun at Noon 41

What really counted was the work I could do

Nineteen Forty-Three

After Chores 45

After Cornhusking 46

The Army 46

Boundary Lines 47

Choosing 47

The Fencerow 48

Free Man 49

Good Friday 49

Guarding the Fire 50

The Hammer and the Rat 51

Homesickness 52

How Many Shadows Has a Man 52

Logician 54

The Neighborhood 54

The Old Dog 54

The Other Land 55

Snake in the Strawberries 55

Spring Barnyard 56

Stranger 57

Stolid Farmer to His Son 57

Time Like a Hand 57

The Vine 58

Winter Shower 59

The Young Old Timer 60

Nineteen Forty-Four

Burn the Cocoons 60

Nineteen Forty-Five

Inquiry 61

I learned resistance from a heart of oak that lay charred in the grate, it was in the fire from the very start and still is solid

Nineteen Fifty-One

Accident 65

The Advantage 65

After Cornhusking 66

After the People Go 66

All Anyone Could Say 67

Analogy 68

Between Snow and Stars 68

Burning a Dead Heifer 69

Construction 70

Crow's Impatience 70

The Deacon Goes for His Sunday Paper 71

The Debtor 72

Fog 72

For a Neighbor Woman 73

The Great Coincidence 74

The Harvesters 75

Impudence 76

Late Spring 76

Mad Dog 77

Memorial Day 77

No Leaves? No Apples? 78

The Oracle 78

The Orchard Man 79

Point of View 80

Protest 81

The Return 82

Statement 83

The Thief 83

Threat of Weather 84

Three Old Horses 85

What Was That? 86

His road is hard who bears within himself seeds of the sun, who sees how patient earth cracks and strains to bring a flower to bloom...

Nineteen Fifty-Seven

Harvest Claim 89

Surprise 89

Nineteen Fifty-Eight

Music for Seven Poems 90

The Old Admonitions 94

The Questioner 94

Success 95

Nineteen Fifty-Nine

The Barn 96

The Cricket 96

Emerson's Page 97

The Reminder 98

The Shadow 98

Time of Contrition 99

Time to Act 100

I stand my ground and warm the air with a man's presence ...

Nineteen Sixty

First Signs 103

See How the Wind 103

Time's Laggard 104

Vigilance 104

Weed Solitude 105

Nineteen Sixty-One

Advice to Farmers 105

Animal Tracks 106

The Bird 107

Cross Purposes 107

Love 108

A Matter of Fact 108

My Father's Care 109

Owner 109

Quiet Sunday 110

Tired of Earth 110

The Waster 111

Nineteen Sixty-Two

Autumn Love 112

Beggared 112

Birthplace 113

Blind with Rainbows 115

Change toward Certainty 118

Farmhand 119

Grandfather's Farm 120

His Daily Pack 120

Landmark 121

Late Meadowlark 122

Limited View 122

Many Hens Do Not Make Light Work 123

Mexico (San Miguel de Allende) 124

Moment toward Spring 124

Need for Grass 125

Need of Solid Ground 126

The Red Flower 126

Scatter the Petals 127

Spring Gymnastics 127

Spring Lament 128

Spring on the Farm 129

A Stray 130

To an Old Sow 130

Truth 131

The Unprotected 132

The Visit 132

The Well 133

I bring you a gift of apples now mellowed past spring's desire ...

Nineteen Sixty-Three

Discovery 137

Home 137

Utopia 138

The Wasted Corner 138

Nineteen Sixty-Four

Buried Seeds 139

The Captain Ashore 139

Karma 140

Love's Apostate 140

Reprieve 141

The Return Flight 141

Tasters 142

Unearned Gift 142

Wilderness Token 143

Nineteen Sixty-Five

Apple Harvest 144

The Balance 144

Behind the Stove 145

A Chance Meeting 146

Claim of Two Countries 146

Cold Snap 147

Common Ground 148

The Farmer's Season 148

For God's Sake 149

Forsythia 149

Hen Pheasant 150

Hog Economy 151

Home Place 151

Indian Summer 152

Marred 152

Noisy Morning 153

A Place to Sit 154

The Quarrel 156

Second Look 156

Shortcut 157

The Storm 157

Undertow 158

Wilderness Ways 159

Nineteen Sixty-Six

Conservative 159

Day's Routine 160

Elegy 160

Line between Seasons 161

Out of Bounds 162

Potencies 162

Retired 163

Tornado 163

Words of a Season 164

... a vision turns stones of fact to miraculous bread

Nineteen Sixty-Seven

Before Frost 167

Bowed Strength 168

The Change 169

Close the Accounts 169

Cold's Verdict 170

Forewarned 171

In Doubt 171

Intruder 172

It Was Like This 173

Little Bull 173

Love in Autumn 174

Love's Survival 174

Love's Ways 175

The Meeting 175

Men Give More Than Promises 176

Metamorphosis 177

The Molehill 178

Morning Walk 178

The New Calf 179

Ownership 180

Penance for Anger 181

Plea for Single Focus 182

Progress 182

Propped Apple Tree 183

Revival 184

The Search 184

Signed by Your Kiss 185

Three Sides to a Farm 186

Time's Flail 187

Trials of Ownership 188

We All Bear the Mark 189

What Shall We Do? 190

Wren in the Vervain 190

... bury the work in its old clothes, let's go inside to learn how fire lives on top of ashes and watch shadows of light leap to the windows

Nineteen Sixty-Eight

After Years Apart 195

The Call 195

End of April 196

Fear of Renewal 197

Fourth of July at Aspen 197

Games Are Never Free 198

Giant Fear 199

Let's Go Inside 199

The Oldest Season 200

The Rescue 200

Sadness Weeps 201

Saturday Morning 201

Spring Fever 202

Spring Rain 203

The Strongest Magic 203

The Test 204

Warm-Eyed Memory 204

A Way to Measure 205

A cow is a completely automatic milk manufacturing machine. It is encased in untanned leather and mounted on four vertical movable supports, one on each corner

Nineteen Sixty-Nine

Bluejay and I 209

The Chipmunk and I 209

Cry Shame 210

Destruction 211

Dogma 211

A Green Voice 212

Hard Words 213

Leaves Like Tears 213

Names for an Obstacle 214

Not Floods but Emptiness 214

Once Glimpsed 217

Stranger, Share Our Fire 217

Valley and Mountain 218

View by View 218

Weeds of Anger 219

What Is a Cow? 219

Wish for a Season 220

Don't bring any more naked questions for me to clothe with answers.

Styles change too fast to keep up with and I'm going out of business

Nineteen Seventy

Between Neighbors 223

The Blame 223

Come On, Let's Go 224

The Day of the Hawk 224

Day's Facts 225

Deaf Ear 226

Discarded 226

Don't Ask the Professor 227

The Face of Things 227

The Farmstead 228

Frustration 229

Let's Not Fool Ourselves 229

Moment Like Love 230

News of Your Coming 230

Resort to Calm 231

Routine Keeps Me 231

The Smile 232

Sounds around a Man 233

Stormbound 233

To a Loquacious Friend 234

To Run or Sit 234

Vacations 235

What Wind 236

Anger and hate find new voices each generation for blasphemies not dreamed of under the big trees

Nineteen Seventy-One

Bitter Taste 239

Caveat Emptor 239

Comfort in an Old Tune 240

Every Teacher Has One 241

The Farmer's Bride 241

The Gardener 242

The Hard Sell 243

The Morning Paper 243

Order in the Grove 244

Out of Season 244

Poverty 245

Pressed Flowers 245

Pride in Love 246

The Problem Comes 246

Queer People 247

Reflection in a Dimestore Window 247

Sharers 248

Spring Rites 248

Stunted Root 249

Thought of Bluebells 250

Undone by Frost 250

Vacation Cottage 250

Weltschmerz 251

Nineteen Seventy-Two

At Least One Step 252

Cloud over the Sun 253

Cock Pheasant 253

Come Back, Come Back 254

Con Man 255

A Curious Critter 255

Dirge for an Old Wound 256

Discord 257

A Field You Cannot Own 258

Forecast 258

The Gift for Love 259

Important Question 259

Late for the News 260

Love Song 260

An Older Language 261

Routine 261

Textual Matters 262

Try, Try Again 263

Until the Storm Passes 263

A Winter Review 264

Nineteen Seventy-Three

Judgment by Spring Rain 265

Revelation 265

A Testament 266

You Can't Plow Stone 266

Nineteen Seventy-Four

Auction 267

Detention 268

It Happened 268

Last Day at the Swimming Hole 269

Listen 269

The Problem 270

Sight by Blindfold 270

Virgin Prairie 271

Yes, It Would 271

Nineteen Seventy-Five

Chill Comfort 272

Day after Day 273

Each to Its Own Purpose 273

The Groundhog 274

Hardened Arteries 275

High Winds and Low Pressures 275

Home Work 276

A Jog to Memory 276

An Occasion 277

Outlived by Time 277

Plea for Persistence 278

Point of No Return 279

Portrait of an Old Horse 279

A Return to Facts 280

Sad, the Way It Is 281

Self-Portrait 281

Stream and Tree 282

Too Many Defeats Dull the Spirit 283

University 283

The Visitor 284

Waiting 285

A Woman and Her Wayward Garden 286

No one who lives here knows how to tell the stranger what it's like, the land I mean ...

Nineteen Seventy-Six

Abrasive Time 289

At Least on the Surface 290

Bluejay 291

Born Again 291

Close Call 292

Dirty Old Man's Poem 293

Evergreen Transformations 293

Facts 298

The Flower 299

Forked Road 299

Homecoming 300

In a Country Cemetery in Iowa 300

Instead of Honey 301

Keep the Storm Outside 302

Landscape

Iowa 303

The Maid Who Served an Ogre 304

Mother 304

Muskrats in the Cornfield 305

Neighborhood in the Suburbs 306

No News Is Good News 307

Praise 307

The Snapshot 308

Still Heard but Faintly 309

Take This Guy 309

That Kind of a Day 310

Two Men 311

Veteran's Day 312

Winter Mood 313

Wonder of Hummingbirds 313

Wren Logic 314

And I see, with limited view, how a man on his threshold feels betrayed by mischief in his calendar

Nineteen Seventy-Seven

Alive and Well 319

Born Each Morning 319

Calendar's Mischief 320

Celebration of Losers 321

Cleaning the Barn 321

Daydream 322

Each Day Alive 323

Eighty Birthdays 323

Emeritus 324

The Enemy 325

Escape Artist 325

Flight and Return 326

Growing Up 327

Hostility to Order 327

I Set My Chair 328

It Never Went Away 329

Lock the Door 330

Not Born Again 331

One Way for an Answer 332

The Promise Seems True 333

The Road 334

Same Thing but Different 335

Shaped by Names 336

Song 336

Surprise 337

Susanna and the Elders 337

There Must Be Somewhere to Go 338

Ute Cemetery 339

Vacation in Colorado 340

The Wall 340

The Way It Is 341

Wedding Anniversary 342

Whatever Happened 343

Who? Who? 344

The Will to Possess 345

Words That Smell Bad 345

Nineteen Seventy-Eight

At Least Once a Problem Solved 346

Bereaved 347

Birth Pains 348

Change in Appetites 349

The Cure 349

A Disowner 350

A Hawk Is Not a Rabbit 351

The Inevitable Words Like Signposts 351

It Could Be Worse, Maybe 352

Learning 353

Modern Design 354

On Guard 354

Our Country 355

Penalty for Anger 355

The Professor Enrolls 356

Relief from Pressure 357

Sauce for the Gander 358

They Never Came 358

Virtue of Logic 359

A Way by Water 359

In the attic of my mind sits a trunk packed with the clothes of old ideas...

Nineteen Seventy-Nine

An Account of Failures 363

Alien 363

Apparition in the Afternoon 364

Arrogance of Things 365

The Backward Flow 365

But the Earth Abides 366

Day of the Cornfield 366

Death of a Marriage 367

Do People Care for People? 368

Dragon Lesson 369

End of the Game 370

Fact 370

The Fact Is 371

Father 371

Grandfather and the Evangelist 372

Hang On to the Grab Bar 373

Hard Way to Learn 373

Here and There 374

The Insatiable Demand 375

Land of Beginnings 375

Let It Come Down 376

A Misery Bleeds 377

Morning Song 377

Need for Magic 378

No More Chores 378

No Nightingales, No Nymphs 379

No Symbols 380

No Word for the Wise 381

Not to Be Overlooked 382

November 382

Off Limits 383

Outsider 384

Pause between Clock Ticks 384

A Prejudiced Witness 385

Retirement Blues 386

Retirement Time Is the Time to Retire 386

Routine 387

Sap's Rise 388

A Secret to Live By 388

A Shabby Day 389

Shove It, Brother, Shove It 390

Small Thorns 390

Something Not Tamed in Us 391

Statistics and Waterfalls 392

The Tarnish 392

To Build a Fence 393

Wheelchair Blues 394

Women Shearing Men 395

Wonder of Hummingbirds 396

Time cuts down the years and lays them in swaths like the grass of a new-mown field

Nineteen Eighty

Banish Morning Fear 399

Castrating the Pigs 399

Cerebral Palsy 400

Consider a Poem 401

Espaliered on a Wailing Wall 401

Housebroken 402

An In-Between Time 403

Lack of Seed Power 403

Melancholy at Night 404

Something Is Given 405

Sooner or Later 406

Stepchild of Nature 407

There Are Still Some Mysteries 407

The Way the Light Shines 408

Weather Words 409

Nineteen Eighty-One

Anyone Can See 409

Bound to Happen 410

An Evasive Fellow 411

A Few Good Licks 411

Gift for All 412

How Good Is Good Enough 413

Improve the View 414

Liberated by Generosity 414

Love Is Not Earned 415

Mr.

Norris and the Civet Cat 416

Nag, Nag, Nag All Day 417

Responsibility of Being Young 417

The Short Run and the Long Pull 418

Shy Breeder 418

A Small Matter 419

Subscription to Salvation 420

Survival 421

There Is Time to Be Cheerful 421

Time to Cross Over 422

We Ought to Burst into Bloom 423

The Windmill 424

Winter Morning 425

Nineteen Eighty-Two

After Snowfall 425

Alms to the Giver 426

A Balance Sheet 427

Double Talk 428

Let It Shine 428

Missed Fortune 429

No Advice Today, Thank You 430

Not Really a Quarrel 431

Not the Last Goodbye 431

Now Hear This 432

Only Flowers Seem Not to Die 433

Photograph 433

Resolution 434

Shelter under Glass 434

Sign-Directed 435

Taking the Bull to Water 436

Walls 437

The Weed Cutter 438

What's Time to a Hog? 439

Wither Away, Friend 440

Witnesses 440

Nineteen Eighty-Three

A Believer 441

Cleaning Lady 442

Fallen Sign 443

Moments of Being Away 443

The Shelled Pea News 444

So Much Change 445

There Are Those Who Say This 446

Time to Go In 447

Within Limits 448

This is my time today and I better make the most of it, there may not be many more

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Abandoned Orchard 451

Away with Boards 451

Claim for Damages 452

Crop Inspector 453

Hope Goes Whoosh! 454

Never Too Late 455

Reason to Get Up in the Morning 455

Strange Things Happen 456

The Tide 457

The Trimmed Bush 458

Today Is Now 458

What Matters 459

What Time Is It Anyway? 460

Nineteen Eighty-Six

The Hurt of Pleasure 461

Not the Day to Listen 461

Winter Reverie 462

Nineteen Ninety-Three

Benchmark of Plunder 463

Best Not to Hope for Miracles 464

Better a Bonfire 465

Choreman 465

The Comfort of a Friend 466

Dulled Appetite 467

Echoes of Memory 468

Expression of a Homeplace 468

Fear of Play for Keeps 469

Flowers Would Be Better 470

Goodbye, Mrs. O'Flynn 471

Man with a Shovel 471

Memorial Day 1982 472

Mind-Boggled 473

Moving Day 473

No Argument 474

Not to Give In 475

One Is Never Sure 476

One Thing Leads to Another 477

The Provincial 477

Random Thoughts 478

Ruffle the Pages 479

Sense of Order 480

A Show of Compassion 480

Take the Best Offer 481

There Is a Line Drawn 482

This Is How They Do It 483

Wealth of News 483

What They Said 484

Where Did They Go? 485

Where We Live 486

While Meadowlarks Sang 487

Who Cares for History? 487

A Wise Man Is No Fool 488

Without Your Good Morning 489

Year after Year 490

All my friends and relatives are welcome to wish me a Happy Passing and I will respond to their salute with my hope to "See you all later."

Unpublished Poems, 2001

And Some Seed Fell 493

Comfort in Small Things 493

End of a Landmark 494

Fourth of July 495

I'm a Christian but 496

It Might Save Us 496

The Malicious Spirit of Machines 497

Need for a Quick Step 498

No Answer 499

Not a Birthday but a Deathday Party 499

Not for Sale 500

Of Course It Matters 501

On Vacation 501

A Small Victory 502

The Supermarket's Secret Machine 503

Threat of Violence 504

To Shape Our Decisions 505.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0877457565

0877457573

OCLC:

45466186