Arkansas, Arkansas

by Guilds, John Caldwell

• ISBN13: 9781557285256
• ISBN10: 155728525X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arkansas Pr

Summary

From the expeditions of de Soto in the sixteenth century to the celebrated work of such contemporary poets and prose writers as Maya Angelou and Ellen Gilchrist, Arkansas has enjoyed a rich history of letters. These voices have been, and still are, as various as the state's geography -- the Delta, the Arkansas River Valley, the Ouachita Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau. Available in two volumes, this anthology of writers from various genres -- journals, travel writing, biography, history, poetry, fiction -- reflects the state's unity as well as its sometimes extreme cultural, political, and topographical differences. The writers represented here are primarily Arkansans writing about Arkansas. Writers who are not natives or residents but who, nevertheless, have written about the state are included as well, as are those who have strong connections with the state but whose work does not. Volume 1 covers the exploration of Arkansas and its rise to territory and statehood. It culminates in a generous selection of writers, including James R. Masterson, Henry Dumas, Thomas Bangs Thorpe, and John Gould Fletcher, all of whom contributed to Arkansas's reputation as a literary state after the Civil War. Volume 2 includes poets and prose writers as diverse as C. Vann Woodward, C. D. Wright, Leon Stokesbury, Barry Hannah, J. William Fulbright, and John Clellon Holmes. It is a model for the proliferation of talent that has sprung up in the last twenty-five years. The two volumes gather, in a single collection, the best work from Arkansas's rich literary history, celebrating the variety of its voices and the national treasure those voices have become.

Table of Contents

General Introduction	xxi
The Contemporary Scene, 1970--Present	1	(712)
Shirley Abbott (1934--)	5	(14)
from Womenfolks: Growing Up Down South
Daughters of Time	5	(14)
Maya Angelou [Marguerite A. Johnson] (1928--)	19	(28)
from The Complete Collected Poems
Southeast Arkanasia	19	(1)
My Arkansas	20	(1)
from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings	21	(13)
from Gather Together in My Name	34	(13)
Margaret Jones Bosterli (1931--)	47	(14)
from Born in the Delta
The Delta	47	(14)
Besmilr Brigham (1913--)	61	(4)
The Night God That Lays the Workers to Sleep	61	(1)
The Young King Snake	62	(1)
In Arkansas	63	(2)
Dee Alexander Brown (1908--)	65	(10)
from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee	65	(5)
Moonshine and Mistletoe	70	(5)
Andrea Hollander Budy (1947--)	75	(4)
Poem for My Brother, Manager of a Go-Go Bar in Roselle Park, New Jersey	75	(2)
Trying to Explain	77	(2)
Ralph Burns (1949--)	79	(6)
from Swamp Candles
In the Bathroom Mirror	79	(1)
Real Time	80	(1)
from Any Given Day
Like a Voice behind a Voice	81	(1)
Then Someone Called, Offering Me a Job	82	(1)
Windy Tuesday Nights	83	(1)
The Barrens of Washington County	83	(1)
The Gift	84	(1)
Sidney Burris (1953--)	85	(8)
Ozark Bacchanal	85	(3)
An Anti-Pastoral for Friends Moving to the Country	88	(2)
To a Friend in HMP Maze, 1989	90	(1)
King of Seasons	91	(1)
The Fiddle in the Corner	91	(2)
Jack Butler (1944--)	93	(29)
from The Kid Who Wanted to Be a Spaceman and Other Poems Preserves	93	(1)
Subplot	94	(2)
from West of Hollywood: Poems from a Hermitage
Blackberries	96	(5)
Apology for Hope	101	(2)
from Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock
A White Man in a Suit	103	(13)
The Thing about Being Fair in Fights	116	(6)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947--)	122	(13)
from It Takes a Village
The World Is in a Hurry, Children Are Not	122	(13)
William Jefferson Clinton (1946--)	135	(14)
Inaugural Address [as Governor of Arkansas]: January 9, 1979	135	(3)
A Vision for America: A New Covenant	138	(11)
Floyd Collins (1951--)	149	(7)
Warm Latitudes	149	(1)
The Death of George Trakl (1887--1914)	150	(1)
A Last Word	151	(1)
The Wedding Guest	152	(1)
James Bowie: Bexar, 1836	153	(3)
Hope Norman Coulter (1961--)	156	(18)
from Dry Bones	156	(18)
James William Fulbright (1905--1995)	174	(26)
from The Arrogance of Power
Part One: The Higher Patriotism: The Citizen and the University	174	(14)
from The Price of Empire
Foreword	188	(3)
from Seeing the World as Others See It	191	(9)
Randall Bennett Woods (1944--)	200	(17)
from Fulbright: A Biography
from chapter 2: Of poets, Prussians, and plutocrats	200	(14)
from chapter 2: Oxford	214	(3)
Miller Williams (1930--)	217	(2)
For J. William Fulbright on the Day of His Death	217	(2)
Willard B. Gatewood (1931--)	219	(9)
from Aristocrats of Color in the South	219	(9)
Ellen Gilchrist (1935--)	228	(24)
from The Annunciation	228	(24)
Francis Irby Gwaltney (1921--1981)	252	(18)
from Destiny's Chickens	252	(18)
Barry Hannah (1942--)	270	(6)
from Habitats of the Meatblossom
Colors That Go with Flesh	270	(6)
Donald Harington (1935--)	276	(41)
from Lightning Bug
Beginning	277	(20)
from The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks
from chapter 1: Stay-More	297	(20)
William Harrison (1933--)	317	(27)
from Three Hunters
Safari: Doctor Trey	317	(7)
Zamani: Point-Blank	324	(3)
from Mountains of the Moon
1854--1855: The First Meeting, East African Journeys, the Disaster at Berbera, Wounds and Hard Feelings	327	(17)
Donald Hays (1947--)	344	(28)
from The Dixie Association	344	(28)
Michael Heffernan (1942--)	372	(11)
from The Man at Home
The Back Road to Arcadia	372	(1)
What I Did on My Vacation	373	(1)
The Misery	374	(2)
Manchild	376	(2)
Slugs	378	(1)
The House of God	379	(1)
Amid a Place of Stone	380	(1)
from Love's Answer
This Life	381	(1)
Souls in Purgatory	381	(1)
Afternoon of the Hun	382	(1)
Geary Hobson (1941--)	383	(3)
from Deer Hunting and Other Poems
For My Brother and Sister Southwestern Indian Poets	383	(1)
A Discussion about Indian Affairs	383	(1)
Going to the Water	384	(2)
John Clellon Holmes (1926--1988)	386	(13)
from Night Music
Fayetteville Dawn (I)	386	(1)
Storm in the Ozarks	387	(2)
Fayetteville Dawn (2)	389	(1)
Dire Coasts	389	(2)
from Representative Men
Update: The Grubstreet Pimpernel, 1986	391	(8)
Douglas C. Jones (1924--1998)	399	(15)
from Come Winter
Prologue: The House on the Knoll	399	(15)
Donald Justice (1925--)	414	(1)
from Selected Poems
Variations for Two Pianos	414	(1)
Carl Judson Launius (1946--)	415	(5)
October Song Ad Adagio	415	(1)
He Watches Arkansas Whip Southern Cal and Recalls Old Football Injuries	416	(1)
One Night Frank Stanford Got Drunke and Started Humming an Old-Timey Spiritual	416	(2)
Epistle to My Teacher Concerning Rose and a Poem I Wrote about Her	418	(2)
Gene Lyons (1943--)	420	(6)
from The Higher Illiteracy
Why I Live Where I Live	420	(6)
Jo McDougall (1935--)	426	(5)
from Towns Facing Railroads
A Friendly Town	426	(1)
Working Late in My Studio on the Second Story	427	(1)
Marbles	427	(1)
Story	428	(1)
Her Last Trick	428	(1)
A Woman of Substance	429	(1)
from From Darkening Porches
She Reflects Upon a Sadness	429	(1)
How It Sometimes Happens to a Man That a Noble Heart and Purpose Come to Dwell Within Him	429	(1)
A Bottomlands Farmer's Wife Speaks After Attempting Suicide	430	(1)
William Mills (1935--)	431	(27)
from The Meaning of Coyotes
Rituals along the Arkansas	431	(2)
from The Arkansas: An American River
Introduction	433	(5)
from Blackjacks, Bald Cypress, and Hardwood Bottoms	438	(20)
Lewis Nordan (1939--)	458	(22)
from Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair
Sugar among the Freaks	458	(15)
Storyteller	473	(7)
Ruth Polk Patterson (1930--1989)	480	(10)
from The Seed of Sally Good'n
chapter2: The Wilds	480	(10)
Lily Peter (1891--1991)	490	(2)
from The Green Linen of Summer and Other Poems
The Green Linen of Summer	490	(1)
Delta Rain	491	(1)
Red Hawk [Robert Moore] (1943--)	492	(4)
from Journey of the Medicine Man
Variations on the Theme of Darkness	492	(1)
The Married Woman's Dream	493	(1)
Towards the Glorious Sun of Infinity	494	(1)
The Note Granddad Left When He Disappeared	495	(1)
Roy Reed (1930--)	496	(19)
from Looking for Hogeye
Heading Home	496	(4)
Arkansas Traveler	500	(5)
Ozarks Winter	505	(10)
Mary Elsie Robertson (1937--)	515	(14)
from Jordan's Stormy Banks and Other Stories
Jordan's Stormy Banks	515	(14)
Stephen Smith (1953--)	529	(16)
from Myth, Media, and the Southern Mind
chapter 4: The Theme of Equality	529	(16)
Frank Stanford (1948--1978)	545	(22)
from The Light the Dead See
The Gospel Bird	545	(3)
The Snake Doctors	548	(13)
Death and the Arkansas River	561	(3)
The Kite	564	(1)
Island Funeral	564	(1)
The Light the Dead See	565	(2)
Leon Stokesbury (1945--)	567	(10)
from The Drifting Away
The Lover Remembereth Such as He Sometime Enjoyed and Showeth How He Would Like to Enjoy Her Again	567	(1)
Chance of Showers	568	(3)
To All Those Considering Coming to Fayetteville	571	(1)
Semi-Sentimental Thank You Note Sent over a Long Distance	571	(2)
A Few Words for Frank Stanford: 1948--1978	573	(4)
James Twiggs (1933--)	577	(11)
from Transferences	577	(11)
Derek Walcott (1930--)	588	(13)
from The Arkansas Testament
The Arkansas Testament	588	(13)
James Whitehead (1936--)	601	(31)
from Domains
Domains	602	(1)
from Local Men
The Narrative Hooper and L.D.O. Sestina with a Long Last Line	603	(2)
He Remembers Something from the War	605	(1)
His Slightly Longer Story Song	606	(1)
For Gen	607	(1)
For Our Fifteenth Anniversary	607	(1)
Troubled in a Dallas Hotel Room He Remembers Lady Years Later	608	(2)
A Local Man Can't Handle the Lady's Problems	610	(1)
The Travelling Picker's Prayer and Dream	611	(1)
Having Gained Some Spiritual Ruthlessness but Still Confused by What Has Happened a Local Man Considers a Friend Who Died Alone	611	(1)
The Country Music Star Begins His Politics	612	(1)
Some Local Men after Their Election	612	(1)
from Near at Hand
For President Jimmy Carter on His Homecoming, Plains, Georgia, January 20, 1981	613	(1)
Forecast	614	(1)
Your Slightly Troubled Caudate Sonnet for the Distinguished Journalist Robert Douglas on His Birthday	615	(1)
For Ellen after the Publication of Her Stories	615	(1)
The True Report about the Day Garrett Improved His Fellow Poets	616	(1)
For John Clellon Holmes	617	(1)
from Joiner
from Chapter 1	617	(15)
John Williams (1922--1994)	632	(17)
from Stoner
Stoner	632	(17)
Miller Williams (1930--)	649	(42)
from The Boys on Their Bony Mules
People	650	(1)
Wiedersehen	650	(2)
The Muse	652	(1)
from A Circle of Stone
Depot in a River Town	653	(1)
The Associate Professor Delivers an Exhortation to His Failing Students	654	(3)
from Imperfect Love
In Extremis in Hardy, Arkansas	657	(1)
A Poem for Emily	658	(1)
Entropy	659	(1)
The Promotion	660	(1)
The Senator Explains a Vote	661	(3)
Ruby Tells All	664	(2)
from Why God Permits Evil
Why God Permits Evil: For Answers to This Question of Interest to Many Write Bible Answers Dept. E-7	666	(2)
from Halfway from Hoxie
A Toast to Floyd Collins	668	(1)
from Living on the Surface
Living on the Surface	669	(1)
The Journalist Buys a Pig Farm	669	(2)
from Distractions
Form and Theory of Poetry	671	(1)
The Well-Ordered Life	671	(1)
from Points of Departure
Going Deaf	672	(1)
Jonathan Seduced	673	(1)
The Young Instructor Talks to Himself Winding Up the Semester	673	(1)
She Talks to Her Sister, Briefly on the Way to Memphis	674	(2)
The Old Professor Fast-Forwards His Last Lecture and Goes Home	676	(2)
from The Ways We Touch
He Shuts His Eyes for the Layman's Long Prayer about Lust and the Mind of the Young Preacher Wanders Again	678	(1)
The Light in the Eyes	678	(1)
71 South	679	(1)
Ballad of a Little Delta Town	679	(1)
For All Our Great-Grandchildren	680	(1)
Of History and Hope	681	(2)
from Ozark, Ozark: a Hillside Reader
The Wall	683	(8)
C. Vann Woodward (1908--)	691	(15)
from The Burden of Southern History
The Search for Southern Identity	691	(15)
from C. D. Wright (1949--)	706	(7)
from Room Rented By a Single Woman
Room Rented by a Single Woman in Van Buren, Arkansas	706	(2)
from String Light
The Ozark Odes	708	(5)
Charles Wright (1935--)	713	(1)
from The Other Side of the River
Arkansas Traveller	713