Contents
General Introduction
The Contemporary Scene, 1970-Present
from Womenfolks: Growing Up Down South Daughters of Time
Southeast Arkanasia
My Arkansas
from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
from Gather Together in My Name
The Delta
The Night God That Lays the Workers to Sleep
The Young King Snake
In Arkansas
Wounded Knee
Moonshine and Mistletoe
Poem for My Brother, Manager of a Go-Go Bar in Roselle Park, New Jersey
Trying to Explain
In the Bathroom Mirror
Real Time
Like a Voice behind a Voice
Then Someone Called, Offering Me a Job
The Barrens of Washington County
The Gift
Ozark Bacchanal
An Anti-Pastoral for Friends Moving to the Country
To a Friend in HMP Maze, 1989
The Fiddle in the Corner
Preserves
Subplot
Blackberries
Apology for Hope
Chapter 2: A White Man in a Suit
Chapter 3: The Thing about Being Fair in Fights
The World Is in a Hurry, Children Are Not
Inaugural Address [as Governor of Arkansas]: January 9, 1979
A Vision for America: A New Covenant
The Death of George Trakl (1887–1914)
A Last Word
The Wedding Guest
James Bowie: Bexar, 1836
from Dry Bones
Part One: The Higher Patriotism: The Citizen and the University
Foreword
from Seeing the World as Others See It
from Chapter 2: Of poets, Prussians, and plutocrats
from Chapter 3: Oxford
For J. William Fulbright on the Day of His Death
from Aristocrats of Color in the South
from The Annunciation
from Destiny’s Chickens
Colors That Go with Flesh
Donald Harington (1935– )
Beginning
from Chapter 1: Stay-More
Safari: Doctor Trey
Zamani: Point-Blank
1854–1855: The First Meeting, East African Journeys, the Disaster at Berbera, Wounds and Hard Feelings
from The Dixie Association
The Back Road to Arcadia
What I Did on My Vacation
The Misery
Manchild
Slugs
The House of God
Amid a Place of Stone
Souls in Purgatory
Afternoon of the Hun
A Discussion about Indian Affairs
Going to the Water
Fayetteville Dawn (I)
Storm in the Ozarks
Dire Coasts
UPDATE: The Grubstreet Pimpernel, 1986
Prologue: The House on the Knoll
Variations for Two Pianos
October Song Ad Adagio
One Night Frank Stanford Got Drunk and Started Humming an Old-Timey Spiritual
Epistle to My Teacher Concerning Rose and a Poem I Wrote about Her
Why I Live Where I Live
A Friendly Town
Marbles
Her Last Trick
How It Sometimes Happens to a Man That a Noble Heart and Purpose Come to Dwell Within Him
A Bottomlands Farmer’s Wife Speaks After Attempting Suicide
Rituals along the Arkansas
Introduction
Storyteller
Sugar among the Freaks
Chapter : The Wilds
The Green Linen of Summer
Delta Rain
Variations on the Theme of Darkness
The Married Woman’s Dream
Towards the Glorious Sun of Infinity
The Note Granddad Left When He Disappeared
Heading Home
Arkansas Traveler
Ozarks Winter
Jordan’s Stormy Banks
Chapter 4: The Theme of Equality
The Gospel Bird
The Snake Doctors
Death and the Arkansas River
Island Funeral
The Light the Dead See
The Lover Remembereth Such as He Sometime Enjoyed and Showeth How He Would Like to Enjoy Her Again
Chance of Showers
A Few Words for Frank Stanford: 1948–1978
from Transferences
The Arkansas Testament
James Whitehead (1936– )
Domains
The Narrative Hooper and L.D.O. Sestina with a Long Last Line
He Remembers Something from the War
His Slightly Longer Story Song
For Our Fifteenth Anniversary
Troubled in a Dallas Hotel Room He Remembers Lady Years Later
A Local Man Can’t Handle the Lady’s Problems
Having Gained Some Spiritual Ruthlessness but Still Confused by What Has Happened a Local Man Considers a Friend Who Died Alone
Some Local Men after Their Election
For President Jimmy Carter on His Homecoming, Plains, Georgia, January 20, 1981
Forecast
For Ellen after the Publication of Her Stories
The True Report about the Day Garrett Improved His Fellow Poets
from Chapter 1
Stoner
Miller Williams (1930– )
Wiedersehen
The Muse
Depot in a River Town
The Associate Professor Delivers an Exhortation to His Failing Students
In Extremis in Hardy, Arkansas
A Poem for Emily
Entropy
The Promotion
The Senator Explains a Vote
Ruby Tells All
Why God Permits Evil: For Answers to This Question of Interest to Many Write Bible Answers Dept. E-7
A Toast to Floyd Collins
The Journalist Buys a Pig Farm
The Well-Ordered Life
Going Deaf
The Young Instructor Talks to Himself Winding Up the Semester
She Talks to Her Sister, Briefly on the Way to Memphis
The Old Professor Fast-Forwards His Last Lecture and Goes Home
The Light in the Eyes
Ballad of a Little Delta Town
For All Our Great-Grandchildren
Of History and Hope
The Wall
The Search for Southern Identity
Room Rented by a Single Woman in Van Buren, Arkansas
The Ozark Odes
Arkansas Traveller