Backtracking

by Oliphant, Dave

• ISBN13: 9780924047251
• ISBN10: 0924047259
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-28
• Publisher: Host Pubns

Summary

Poetry. Dave Oliphant's BACKTRACKING explores the influences and inspirations that shaped the work of this prolific American poet. The impact of Spanish culture on the poet is featured at the beginning of the collection, while his wife serves as the inspiration for an ongoing series of poems that celebrates the passion and mystery of their 37-year love affair. Oliphant also pays tribute to his forbearers and remembers literary and musical figures important to his life and those of his kinsmen. An eclectic gathering of poems on Texas landscapes and people, a Chinese film, the Connecticut composer Charles Ives, a Van Gogh painting and an elegy of Princess Diana are also included in this diverse and powerful collection of contemporary American poetry.

Table of Contents

Espana
An Occasional Ode	p. 3
Ironing at the Colegio Mayor "Mara"	p. 6
Constitutional	p. 8
Civil War	p. 10
Fifty	p. 13
A Bullfight on Color TV	p. 14
Rice	p. 17
from Maria's Poems
Maria's Albums	p. 21
Maria's Ark	p. 23
Maria's Birds	p. 25
Maria's Birthmark	p. 27
Maria's Clock	p. 28
Maria's Dresses	p. 30
Maria's Genealogy	p. 31
Maria's Hands	p. 35
Maria's hermana	p. 36
Maria's Kieffer Pears	p. 45
Maria's Maine Coon Cat	p. 47
Maria's Meals	p. 50
Maria's Memo	p. 52
Maria's Metempsychosis	p. 53
Maria's Miracles	p. 54
Maria's Radio	p. 55
Maria's Sewing Machine	p. 57
Maria's Souvenir	p. 59
Maria's Tambourine Man	p. 61
from Backtracking
	p. 64
	p. 72
Starting Over
Another Hill Country Sunset	p. 81
Bert's Barbecue	p. 83
Leukemia & the River of Light	p. 87
Starting Over	p. 89
Isabella's Pebbles	p. 91
At the Surplus Supply	p. 94
Vincent at the Wal-Mart Supercenter	p. 96
Pulling Weeds for Princess Di	p. 98
Tears	p. 100
A Funeral in Brock Texas	p. 103
Entering East Texas From the West	p. 105
Strokes	p. 107
In Upstate New York a Texas Composer Has Lost His Home	p. 110
On Rehearing Aaron Copland's Orchestral Variations During the 100th Anniversary of the Composer's Birth	p. 112
Of "Guernica" for Solo Viola	p. 114
Three Musicians Perform Their Freedom	p. 116
The Pilgrimage	p. 119
Extra Virgin	p. 123
Mountains	p. 126
A Texas Version of Crevecoeur	p. 127
All Thumbs	p. 129
Poets Teachers & a Librarian
Fessing Up to David Yates	p. 133
Murphey's Law	p. 135
To James White Bear Cody	p. 137
Thanks to Behlen for the Anderson	p. 138
To Marshall Rick Roderick	p. 139
In Memoriam: Winfred S. Emmons	p. 141
Teachers at South Park High	p. 145
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