Hawks on wires : poems, 2005-2010 / Dave Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Dave, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

Poetry--Southern States.

Poetry.

Southern States.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

viii, 94 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2011]

Summary:

Dave Smith's sixteenth poetry collection chronicles the arc of almost sixty years living in the American South. From dusty sawmills to the ubiquitous Waftle House, Hawks on Wires stages both mortal and comic dramas that speak to the poet's autumnal acceptance of himself and the South.

Poems of growing up engaged with the people of the coast and wood lands-boatmen, hunters, crabbers, sawyers, and tough-mouthed waitresses-celebrate the once strong but now tenuous threads of community.

Traveling through the latter twentieth century, Smith presents matters of family, sex, and race during a turbulent and historic era in southern history. Assassinations, withdrawal of religious prohibitions, violent cultural convulsions, and even the diminished meaning of the word "southern" shake the poet's personal identity.

Smith seeks meaning as the memory of events, carried over a lifetime, now begs for explanation. Despite the inevitable displacements and disappointments of identity, which remain mysterious, Smith finds optimism in life. Book jacket.

Contents:

The Holy Mother Of Connecticut Avenue

The Holy Mother of Connecticut Avenue 3

Come-Along 9

Early Bird Dog Training 10

Dissection 11

June Bug 12

Bow Cleat 13

Rubber Men 14

Colored Store 16

Sawmill 17

Acetylene 19

Fig Tree 20

Skating Waitress at the Circle Drive-In 21

Allen Wheeler's Love Tale 23

Croaker Bucket 24

Bourbon in a Cup 26

DePartment E-7

DePartment E-7 29

Moment of Here 36

My Father's Tools 38

A Gift Boat 40

Ruffed Grouse Feeding on Moonseed Berries 41

Blue Heron 42

Woman, Snake, Percy Sledge 43

Fran's Barn 45

Seventeen Parts of a Duck 47

Jury Duty 50

Weekend Getaway 51

Ron's Cat 52

Failure of Fishing 53

Zydeco 54

Christmas Concert, With Violin

Christmas Concert, with Violin 57

Photograph of a Waterman, Bull Island, Virginia, Circa 1970 64

Hooks 66

A Dream of a Bat 67

Red Dress 69

Tongue and Groove 71

The Ordinary Animal 72

Dry Cleaner 73

Fireflies 74

Cumberland Reunion 75

Hawks on Wires 77

Two Funerals in the House 78

Glasses 81

A Drink for Peterless 83

Goose Blind 84

Ode To Waffle House

Ode to Waffle House 89.

ISBN:

9780807142301

0807142301

9780807142318

080714231X

OCLC:

717298532