G.C. Waldrep

on the death of a.r. ammons

*

smoke oiling the night’s
parasite blade

each tree / is an Athlete

blue staff
muscle a bent nail plays

 

*

the shattered evergreens

divider

 

my greatest patience

to perform a speech of his person—
     a glass act

(the terrorist snow          dissents)

a deer’s breath led me to this quiet

prophecy, you sieve, eclipse
of the breath I wanted, harvester—

divider

 

at ramah
(in memory of J. Thermon Nall)

a long held note, Alabama dusk.

something to read about,
in a dim garden, say. Overhead

the whirling satellites of thorn—

 


G.C. Waldrep’s most recent books are a long poem, Testament (BOA Editions, 2015), and a chapbook, Susquehanna (Omnidawn, 2013).  With Joshua Corey he edited The Arcadia Project:  North American Postmodern Pastoral (Ahsahta, 2012).  His new collection, feast gently, is due out from Tupelo Press in May 2018.  He lives in Lewisburg, Pa., where he teaches at Bucknell University, edits the journal West Branch, and serves as Editor-at-Large for The Kenyon Review.