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-   -   A. E. Stallings/POETRY (https://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=1075)

Patricia A. Marsh 04-30-2002 09:05 PM

Congratulations to A. E. Stallings . . . three poems in the May 2002 issue of POETRY magazine!

Tom Jardine 05-01-2002 09:55 AM


And here is one of them: (for readers who may not have access to a copy)

Arrowhead Hunting

The land is full of what was lost. What's hidden
Rises to the surface after rain
In new-ploughed fields, and fields stubbled again;
The clay shards, foot and lip, that heaped the midden.

And here and there a blade or flakes of blade,
A patient art, knapped from a core of flint,
Most broken, few as coins new from the mint,
Perfect, shot through time as through a glade.

You cannot help but think how they were lost:
The quarry, fletched shaft in its flank, the blood
Whose trail soon vanished in the antlered wood,
Not just the meat, but what the weapon cost--

O hapless hunter, though your aim was true--
The wounded hart, spooked, fleeting in its fear--
And the sharpness honed with longing, year by year
Buried deeper, found someday, but not by you.

A. E. Stallings

Catherine Tufariello 05-01-2002 08:19 PM

It's always a treat to get a new issue of Poetry with "Stallings" on the cover, especially when there is more than one of her poems inside. "Arrowhead Hunting" is wonderful, one of Alicia's best I think. Not a wasted word, and such memorable lines and phrases. I especially love the description of the unbroken arrowheads as "Perfect, shot through time as through a glade." Congratulations, Alicia!



[This message has been edited by Catherine Tufariello (edited May 02, 2002).]

Roger Slater 05-02-2002 09:32 AM

I second Alicia's comments [oops, I meant Catherine's comments], though I would single out the following for special praise:

You cannot help but think how they were lost:
The quarry, fletched shaft in its flank, the blood
Whose trail soon vanished in the antlered wood,
Not just the meat, but what the weapon cost--


The obseration itself is fascinating (I personally never stopped to reflect about how they were lost, though it's a fascinating question). And in a world where poets are warned against using too many adjectives, "fletched shaft" and "antlered wood" are so marvelous that the warning should be modified: don't use adjectives unless they're unusually precise and evocative, and sound great. (I also like the consonance of fletched and flank).

I can't wait to buy the issue and read her other poems as well.



[This message has been edited by Roger Slater (edited May 04, 2002).]

Patricia A. Marsh 05-02-2002 10:07 PM

Forgot to mention that Stallings' Arrowhead Hunting poem is in the issue of POETRY magazine with the arrowheads on the front-cover. Happy hunting, Roger! ;-}

A. E. Stallings 05-07-2002 03:53 AM

Thanks, Patricia, for the announcement. (How nice not to have to blow one's own horn...) & many thanks to Catherine & Roger & Tom for their very kind & generous remarks. I was quite tickled to see the arrowheads (or spear points) on the cover... it was a total surprise!

diprinzio 05-13-2002 03:10 AM

Congratulations Alicia! I saw the issue. What an honor to have your poem influence the cover art. Poetry is one of my favorites; the perfect size of it, the feel, the history, the look. I have issues of that magazine going back to 1917 when Ezra Pound was foreign correspondent. Well, congrats.

Greg



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