Summoning shades / R. T. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, R. T., author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--21st century.

American poetry.

Characters and characteristics--Themes, motives--Poetry.

Characters and characteristics.

Themes, motives.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

110 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Macon, Georgia : Mercer University Press, 2019.

Summary:

Homer sends the hero of The Odyssey to interview the dead in order to discover his destiny. The poems of R. T. Smith's Summoning Shades pursue a similar mission, bringing to life in monologues and narratives figures from history and recollection, all rendered with careful attention to the idiom, customs, emotions, and ironies of their time and region. The earlier, nineteenth century figures include Mary Lincoln, Ambrose Bierce, Meriwether Lewis, Federal veterans posing as casualties for photographers, women in a Winslow Homer painting, and Audubon's assistant Joseph Mason. All are rescued from the shadows long enough to reveal their natures and often-gothic moments of crisis. The more modern figures include Lizzie Borden, Patsy Cline, and a gallery of characters summoned from small-town Southern sources-a roguish uncle, a dishonest investigator, a furious neighbor, a zealous and dangerous preacher. The collection concludes with the narrator attempting to speak with his dementia-stricken mother and, in her, seeing the mother of Odysseus, "an empty flitting shade" breaking her son's heart as her image eludes his attempts to embrace her. Working from historical sources, a broad empathy, and a mischievous imagination, Smith is able to find wry dark humor and a little succor in the presence of Civil War survivors, rogue musicians, and adventurers. Whether the subjects are major players in the story of America or squabbling Appalachian farmers, Smith keeps hoping their domain will be redeemed from violence. Even damaged Mary Lincoln, incarcerated in an asylum, has a magical blue bird to guide her toward escape and revenge, and dulcimers played in familial harmony make the mountains ring.

Contents:

1 Mary Lincoln Suite: Gloves p. 1

Summoning Shades p. 5

A Serpent's Tooth p. 10

Lizzie Keckley p. 15

Mockingbird p. 18

Still Life: from the Notebooks of A, Bierce, 1862 p. 20

Henry Kyd Douglas, After Cold Harbor p. 23

Flower Coffin p. 24

Major Henry Rathbone p. 25

Impasto p. 29

2 Mendicant No More: Joseph Mason, 1848 p. 31

3 At Shadweli p. 38

Priscilla Knight Grinder: Final Affidavit on the Death of the Famous Explorer p. 41

Fiddler p. 46

Pigeons, Pears, Hush p. 48

Special Collections: Girl with Canebrake Rattler p. 53

Perfect Pitch p. 56

Duet p. 59

Falwell p. 61

4 Rockbridge News, 1892:

Breakout p. 63

Porcine Strife p. 65

A Lamentable End p. 66

Avian Complaint p. 68

Snitch on His Deathbed Relates the Amazing p. 70

Unexplained Behavior p. 72

Owls and Others p. 74

5 Tube Rose p. 76

Directly p. 78

Beholden p. 79

Rogue p. 81

Bourbon p. 85

Sacred Harp p. 87

Within Shouting Distance of the Coosa p. 89

Maricón p. 91

Pentecost p. 99

Ruddock p. 101

Keelbone p. 103

Owling p. 105

Shades p. 107.

Notes:

The Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry, Mercer University Press.

ISBN:

0881467006

9780881467000

OCLC:

1083458927