James Applewhite’s books of poetry include A Diary of Altered Light (forthcoming), Quartet for Three Voices (2002), Daytime and Starlight (1997), and A History of the River (1993). He has received numerous awards, including the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Jean Stein Award in Poetry, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Poetry, and the North Carolina Award in Literature. Applewhite is Professor of English at Duke University, where he has taught since 1972.
On the Selection ix
I
State Road 134 3
My Grandfather's Funeral 4
Driving Through a Country America 6
The Sunplane 7
Leaf Mirrors 8
William Blackburn, Riding Westward 9
Looking for a Home in the South 11
Discardings 12
Visit with Artina 13
A Kid at the County Fair 15
Revisitings 16
Zeppelin Fantasy 17
Bordering Manuscript 18
To Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in Exile 19
War Summer 20
A Southern Elegy 21
II
The Capsized Boat 25
On the Homefront 26
A Vigil 27
A Garden's Season 28
Iron River 29
With Darkening Foliage 30
Diamond of Shadow 31
A Forge of Words 32
Combat Station 33
To Forgive this Inheritance 34
Images, Burning 35
A Minister, Crippled 36
Keeper of the Dragon's Teeth 37
Boundary Stones 38
III
Tobacco Men 41
Drinking Music 42
Building in the Country 43
Roadside Notes in Ragged Hand 44
Water 46
Blood Ties: For Jan 47
Pamlico River 48
January Farmhouse 49
White Lake 50
Firewood 51
Some Words for Fall 53
From as Far Away as Dying 54
The Mary Tapes 55
IV
Iron Age Flying 65
English Church Towers 68
Evening in Bath 69
Royal Hospital 70
Beginning with Egypt (The British Museum) 71
Foreseeing the Journey 72
V
Jonquils 77
Collards 78
A Leaf of Tobacco 79
Barbecue Service 80
Southern Voices 81
The Morning After 83
Greene County Pastoral 84
Quitting Time 86
How to Fix a Pig (as told by Dee Grimes) 87
The Advisors 89
VI
World's Shoulder, Turning 93
The Ford 94
Crossing on Cables 95
Constructing the River 96
Just Rain 97
Tree of Babel 98
Clear Winter 99
Like a Body in the River 100
The Sense of Light 101
When the Night Falls 102
In Sight of the Self 103
Buzzard's Roost 104
An Orphaned Voice 105
House of Seasons 106
The Water-Machine 107
The Sex of Divinity 108
Light Beyond Thought 109
Out of My Circle 110
Prayer for My Son 111
The Bison 112
Bridge Back Toward the South 114
Driving Toward Cairo 115
Rivers 116
The Self, that Dark Star 117
Sleeping with Stars an Bulbs, Time and Its Signs 118b
The War Against Nature 121
The Student Pilot Sleeps 122
Lessons in Soaring 123
Art and the Garden 125
The Failure in Southern Representation 126
A Place and a Voice 128
Greenhouse Effect 134
The Descent 135
A Conversation 136
VIII
Storm in the Briar Patch 143
Home Team 144
A Wilson County Farmer 145
Time at Seven Springs: An Elegy 146
After Winslow Homer's Images of Blacks 148
The Cemetery Next to Contentnea 150
A Father and Son 152
Light's Praise 154
IX
A Voice at the River Park 157
Botanical Garden: The Costal Plains 159
Autumnal Equinox 160
Letter to My Wife, from Minnesota 161
A Tapestry in the Mirror in the Palazzo Pamphili 163
Sailing the Inlet 164
A Distant Father 166
Interstate Highway 168
Grandfather Wordsworth 170
