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Body into Earth: Poems by the Signs
Paperback
Publisher Price: $11.95
ISBN13: 9781440175633
Publisher: Authorhouse
Published: Oct 17 2009
Pages: 136
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.32 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Easter Ramps
... a wild onion, Allium tricocum, of eastern North America ... eaten raw or used as a flavoring in cooked foods.
―Webster's Dictionary
Half breed Indian and mountain man
Quickly, they scramble over rock
and winter debris. Quietly,
I follow.
Near a mile high,
below rock cliffs and ivy thicket,
steep mountains slope to coves
and patches of green
in springtide.
On the mountainside we sit,
break cornbread and boiled egg,
and eat ramps. We talk
about signs as buck gnats swarm
and bite.
I can taste ramp smell
upon teeth and tongue. God
knows, it takes something strong
to course through the blood
and purify.
The morrow is Easter, resurrection
day. In visions of Christ's coming,
the mountains seem sanctuary:
hands outstretched hold
Holy fire.
Blurb for Body into Earth by John Cantey Knight
Though sectioned by the zodiac's elemental signs, it is the earth's fullness and plowed beginnings that hold John Cantey Knight rapt in this debut collection. Poems wry, precise, and alert explore communities of self and nature, their uneasy covenant and mysteries. Preoccupied by light, surrounded by the night, he tromps along valley and vista, reminding us that, even amid the creek-fed garden, serpents abound. We are haloed by southern Appalachia's lexicon of mountain habitation and inhabitant, the winter cresses not like nary another green ... the year's first purifying tonic. Whether our lives are purified by blessing or fallen angels, Knight's vision is expansive enough to gather the tart goodness of both, equally the hunter as the hunted, each finding solace and renewal in his words' flaming thicket.
-Linda Parsons Marion
Now & Then Magazine and author of two collections of poems: Home Fires and Mother Land.
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