Brought together here in one volume are sixty-seven vibrant poets united by deep ties to Louisiana. They sing of this uncommon place in voices enticingly diverse. Professor, grandmother, petroleum landman, insurance salesman - they are black and white; young and old; French- and English-speaking; native, transient, displaced, and even "recovering" Louisianians. They hail not only from cities, small towns, and farms throughout Louisiana, but also from states across the country where, despite time and distance, many continue to think of themselves as belonging to the bayous and cottonfields of their former home.

Preface
It'll Never Be Warm Again	p. 1
Once in the Lacquered Afterform of the Dream	p. 1
Old Numbers	p. 1
Azaleas	p. 3
Pole Boat at Honey Island	p. 4
On the Veranda We Drink Gin and Tonic	p. 5
Suite du loup, no.je ne sais plus	p. 7
Ouragan III	p. 7
In the Marsh	p. 9
The Maker in the Sky	p. 10
Sleeping with the Net-Maker	p. 11
A Song	p. 13
A Short History of Barbed Wire	p. 13
Sestina	p. 14
Le Courir de Mardi Gras	p. 16
Holy Water	p. 16
The Grammar of Verbenas	p. 21
Oysters	p. 25
New Orleans: The Winter Hour	p. 26
Tulips	p. 27
Programming an Evening Away from Home	p. 28
Dance of the Wino in Lafayette Square	p. 28
Homecoming	p. 29
On Watching a Young Man Play Tennis	p. 30
The Bride of Quietness	p. 30
End of Summer	p. 32
first blue sky	p. 33
often after a public event	p. 34
a geography of poets	p. 35
The Red Shoes	p. 36
Maison Blanche	p. 37
Romance	p. 38
Holy Family: Audubon Zoo, New Orleans	p. 40
Bayou Autumn	p. 40
Soul Making	p. 41
Violets	p. 43
Breathing Space	p. 43
Where Things Go When They Leave	p. 44
Family Gathering, 1959	p. 45
What They Wrote on the Bathhouse Walls, Yen's Marina, Chinese Bayou, LA	p. 49
Culs-de-sac	p. 51
Proposing to A Victoria	p. 53
Not a Bad Place to Start	p. 57
Birdsong: Analogues	p. 58
The Inheritance of Death in the Vesture of Dance	p. 59
Le Charivari de Celestin Joseph Doucet	p. 62
Freshman with a Neuroanatomy Text	p. 62
Le Feu-Follet	p. 63
Children and a Great Aunt	p. 64
Eulogy for the Sears-Roebuck Catalog, 1993	p. 64
Sac-a-lait	p. 65
Bathing Father	p. 67
River Witch	p. 70
Practicing	p. 71
First Gift	p. 73
The Bog Sacrifice	p. 76
Audubon at Oakley	p. 77
Thinking About Taniece, Buried in St. Augustine Churchyard, 1968	p. 78
N'Oncle Oreneus	p. 79
The Derrick Man	p. 80
Sky Music	p. 81
Offshore Fog: Day Twelve	p. 82
New World in the Morning	p. 84
Whitey Goes Long	p. 85
The Space Between Stars	p. 86
What It's Like to Travel Long Distance Alone on the Train	p. 87
No Elegy for One Who Died Too Soon	p. 88
To a Friend's Wife	p. 89
Jazz Rain	p. 90
The Long and Short of It	p. 91
Plantation	p. 93
Pilgrimage	p. 93
Evening Services on North Rampart Street	p. 96
The Weaning	p. 97
Anniversary	p. 97
Men as Trees Walking	p. 98
Christmas	p. 100
Babe Stovall on a Bare Stage	p. 101
Valentine	p. 102
Horse Sense	p. 104
The Poet Hunts Doves with the Natchitoches Police	p. 107
Driving to Work	p. 108
Fence	p. 109
The Holy Ghost Goes Out for Little League	p. 111
Sighting	p. 111
Epithalamium	p. 113
A Romance	p. 113
Turtle Soup at Mandina's	p. 115
A Construction of Clouds	p. 115
The Mermaid Story	p. 117
Mardi Gras Parade	p. 117
Black English	p. 119
Sky	p. 120
The Surfer	p. 121
From the French Market	p. 123
Thibodaux	p. 124
La Chaudriere Pele La Gregue ...	p. 126
The Pot Calls the Coffeepot ...	p. 127
Ode to Langour	p. 128
The Potato Mash (More Indefinite and More Soluble)	p. 129
Lingo	p. 131
Mud	p. 133
Double Exposure	p. 133
Baton Rouge	p. 135
Migration	p. 136
I Never Scream	p. 137
Why I Have a Back Yard	p. 139
Bridges	p. 139
Southern Gothic	p. 141
The Behavior of Ants	p. 144
Finger Bowls	p. 146
Les Fils	p. 148
Sons	p. 149
Pink Geraniums	p. 154
Hurricane	p. 156
The Family Tree	p. 157
The Patriarch	p. 158
Watch for the Fox	p. 161
I Don't Even Recognize the Road	p. 161
A Philosophical Evening in Louisiana	p. 162
Learning Not to Want	p. 164
Fractioning	p. 165
Autumn at Midlife	p. 165
Bone Soup	p. 167
My Name Is Snow	p. 168
The White Rabbit	p. 169
Heaven	p. 170
ALS	p. 171
Music	p. 171
Learning the Bicycle	p. 173
A Note of Thanks	p. 173
The Wild Horses	p. 175
Connections	p. 177
Into Grace	p. 178
The Man Who	p. 179
Up Till Now	p. 179
Her House on the Wrong Side of Luck	p. 180
Going Home: New Orleans	p. 181
Mother's Red Beans and Rice	p. 182
Hurricane Season	p. 183
Govern Yrself Accordingly	p. 185
even death will not stop me from struggling	p. 185
Where Are You	p. 187
Southern Women	p. 188
M Is for the Many	p. 189
I'll Try to Tell You What I Know	p. 190
The Last Swimmer on Galveston Beach	p. 192
The Circus by the Cemetery	p. 194
Out Whistling	p. 196
Wreckage at Lake Pontchartrain	p. 196
The Egret Tree	p. 197
The Landing	p. 199
Country Signs	p. 200
A Paradise of Gentle Readers	p. 204
Little Prelude	p. 205
God and All Angels	p. 206
Bayou	p. 207
The Bee	p. 207
Sunday	p. 208
Visions of Doom at Canal Villere	p. 209
You Stunning	p. 212
Snakebit	p. 212
I Have Always Known	p. 215
Live Oak	p. 217
Equinox Breaking	p. 218
Science	p. 219
Breakfast Room	p. 220
Guilt	p. 221
Old Woman and 25 Cats	p. 222
Written on the Head of a Pin	p. 222
The Gypsy Woman Tells Your Fortune	p. 223
Winslow Homer's Blues	p. 224
Late Afternoon on a Good Lake	p. 226
Old-Fashioned	p. 228
The Perils of Beauty	p. 230
Here in Louisiana	p. 231
The Poem	p. 233
Ain't No Spring Chicken	p. 233
Acknowledgments	p. 237
Contributors	p. 245
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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