These poems by Richard Weaver create an atmosphere I haven’t felt for a while in poems. Weaver’s intimacy of his subject & his sense of Walter Anderson’s inner motions & how this co-operates with the environments in the poems, is astonishingly handled. Richard sent me 10 & I couldn’t not take all 10 as the thread of the theme & the tone of them just demanded it.
Was really pleased to receive these. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.Daniel
The subject of these poems, Walter Anderson, a Mississippi Gulf Coast artist who died in 1965, spent most of his time on the Barrier Islands off the coast of Mississippi. The first 6 poems are reflections of that. The final four are set in China during the Cultural revolution. Anderson attempted to walk across China in order to reach Tibet.
Squall
I know weather by the osprey.
When a change is coming they take to the air
riding the upward currents before a storm,
lighter than wind. They roll and loop,
dive then soar again, disappearing
into the black edge of the nor’easter
as the water turns to green fire around them.
The horizon is lost then found again
between earth and sky. One image
succeeds another. Like the Moor hens
giving chase in the surf. Or the young
pelicans standing in the palmettos
who flap their wings with the…
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