Field Recordings

This is the second time the Dead Mule School of Literature has featured a mini chapbook of my poetry. The time before was for the war themed cycle "News From the Front." If I were hard pressed to nail down a theme for these: rural poor, addiction, mental health. Maybe not in that order. "Dem Peckerwoods,"  "Lemonade Stand," "Lemonade Stand is Not," and "Kevron Tells Deon About the Fight" use a fair amount of found language. Most of the poems are not new, per se, but have not been published. "How to Find...Ocean" was featured in All My Rowdy Friends , and made into a podcast by Alpine Strangers, which you can listen to here. 

Helen Losse’s book Better with Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009, $14.00) echoes like a tough southern country gospel song, the burden of suffering and the longing for joy and peace are balanced with images and music of nature, the rhythms of the working class poor, and the loneliness of a woman trying to change what is wrong in the world. The pride of social justice is the backbone of many of these poems, and so often the company of social change is loss, disappointment, the falling down and getting up of those who fight the good fight. Or try to. Loss and elegy are common themes and modes of expression in Friends , as common as the railroads, fogs and flowers that pepper the landscape of these poems. Elegy, according to Larry Levis, is the American form of poetry and Friends opens with the fumbling grief and frustration of an elderly relative who falls closer and closer to the bottom in the middle of the holiday season. Throughout the painful hospital stays, the woman’s fi...

My old friend Nate McFadden recorded the poem, “Dinner at Henri's ”, from News from the Front (my latest chapbook, published by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, here ) for his podcast. He performs a smashing reading, nailing the tone. The poem, inspired by the French Resistance, and a life long love of radio, is one of my personal favs; it reads well with audiences, more than others. It's nice to hear someone besides me read it, like most of you I do not like the way I sound to others. Actively, I try to squeeze some kind of poem, or poetic work out every day. It keeps me sane, healthy, and engaged with language. During the busy school year I can least give myself a twenty minute period of time when I can be in my own voice, so to speak, and work my talent. I'm documenting the quotidian over at Figmen t and Wattpad , two social media sites that deal with writing. Granted, most of the work on the site is written solely so the author can post a cool, h...

If anyone's interested in a mid-summer run to Rehoboth's outlet malls, consider Tuesday, July 27th, and stop by the Rehoboth Beach Librar y for the summer poetry series. Besides moi, Denise Clemmons, poet and food critic for the Cape Gazette, and Sherry Chapplle, poet and professor. Excellent company. Books will be for sale afterwards. It's a quality series, and full of surprises. Garry Hanna has done a bang-up job organizing the summer series. Bring a few quarters to ward off the meter maid. Reading starts at 7:00 PM.

http://www.deadmule.com/poetry/2009/04/s-scott-whitaker-%e2%80%93-three-poems/