Ohio University Press, 2012 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4408-5 | Paper: 978-0-8214-1989-2 Library of Congress Classification PS3614.O783G73 2012 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Gravel and Hawk dwells on the physical and cultural landscapes of the Texarkana border region, an area of stark natural beauty and even starker manifestations of its human habitation: oil derricks and pump jacks, logging trucks, chicken houses, come-to-Jesus billboards, and greasy catfish joints, a patchwork of dying farm towns and ragtag municipalities laced together by county roads, state highways, and that treacherous, rust-hued slurry known as the Red River. Gravel and Hawk charts the emotional landscape of a single extended family, its history of loss and gain, and, especially, its encounters with violent death. It is an eminently readable collection, rooted in a distinctly American place and united by a poetic voice that is honest, sophisticated, and persuasive.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Nick Norwood is the author of the poetry collections The Soft Blare and A Palace for the Heart and the fine press book Wrestle, which he produced in collaboration with the artist and master printer Erika Adams. His poems have appeared widely in such journals as Western Humanities Review, Southwest Review, Paris Review, Wallace Stevens Journal, and others.
REVIEWS
“Even if you never cared for rural, or you grew up in a city, (Gravel and Hawk) will change you. The natural world lives within this poet in disciplined poems of comfortable silence bracketing culture cells of country life. There is substantiability in these reflections. The subjects are rudimentary; the emotions are gravitational fields of honesty.”—Washington Independent Review of Books
“Nick Norwood’s Gravel and Hawk, his fourth collection of poetry and winner of the Hollis Summers poetry prize, has struck me with its commanding voice. The speaker of these poems has a wonderful way with imagery that provides a strong sense of the rural Texas where his speaker grew up (along with a few ventures into neighboring states).” —storySouth
“Gravel and Hawk is a sophisticated mapping of personal memories, a map peppered with buildings and places that ultimately give the reader something to anchor their reading to…. (A) wholly satisfying reading experience, anchoring the reader, and the experience of a collective memory, firmly to the ground.”—Concho River Review
Ohio University Press, 2012 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4408-5 Paper: 978-0-8214-1989-2
Gravel and Hawk dwells on the physical and cultural landscapes of the Texarkana border region, an area of stark natural beauty and even starker manifestations of its human habitation: oil derricks and pump jacks, logging trucks, chicken houses, come-to-Jesus billboards, and greasy catfish joints, a patchwork of dying farm towns and ragtag municipalities laced together by county roads, state highways, and that treacherous, rust-hued slurry known as the Red River. Gravel and Hawk charts the emotional landscape of a single extended family, its history of loss and gain, and, especially, its encounters with violent death. It is an eminently readable collection, rooted in a distinctly American place and united by a poetic voice that is honest, sophisticated, and persuasive.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Nick Norwood is the author of the poetry collections The Soft Blare and A Palace for the Heart and the fine press book Wrestle, which he produced in collaboration with the artist and master printer Erika Adams. His poems have appeared widely in such journals as Western Humanities Review, Southwest Review, Paris Review, Wallace Stevens Journal, and others.
REVIEWS
“Even if you never cared for rural, or you grew up in a city, (Gravel and Hawk) will change you. The natural world lives within this poet in disciplined poems of comfortable silence bracketing culture cells of country life. There is substantiability in these reflections. The subjects are rudimentary; the emotions are gravitational fields of honesty.”—Washington Independent Review of Books
“Nick Norwood’s Gravel and Hawk, his fourth collection of poetry and winner of the Hollis Summers poetry prize, has struck me with its commanding voice. The speaker of these poems has a wonderful way with imagery that provides a strong sense of the rural Texas where his speaker grew up (along with a few ventures into neighboring states).” —storySouth
“Gravel and Hawk is a sophisticated mapping of personal memories, a map peppered with buildings and places that ultimately give the reader something to anchor their reading to…. (A) wholly satisfying reading experience, anchoring the reader, and the experience of a collective memory, firmly to the ground.”—Concho River Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Nostalgia
Haying
Afoot in the Fields
A.M.
Second Person Singular
Illustration from an Early Reader
Moonwalk
My First Record
Mrs. Page
Playing with Dolls
Dreams of Parenthood
Cemetery on U.S. 271
Girl on a Horse
Turn to Stone
Stumble
Bush Hog
Clutch
Hawk
Early Hunting Trip
Firewood
Underpass
Report
Buildings
Moving House
Receding into Darkness
Winter Feeding
Dead Cow
Missing
Swimming in a Stock Tank
My Grandparents’ Victrola
Smolder
Dinner
Main Street, from the Water Tower
Jarring Honey
Stem
Chris-Craft
Houseboat at the Bottom of a Cove
Catfish Joint on the Red
Diving below the Dam
Cold Blood
At Sea
Treetop Love: An Ode
Poolside, Late Afternoon
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC