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Poets and Poems: Leon Stokesbury and “You Are Here”

By Glynn Young 8 Comments

Twilight Field - Leon Stokesbury

It’s unusual to find myself laughing out loud while reading a book of poetry, but that’s what I did with You Are Here: Poems New & Old by Leon Stokesbury.

Stokesbury doesn’t write comic poetry, but he manifests a sense of mischief and a willingness to poke fun at even some of the most serious of poems and poets, like Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Morte d’Arthur

Higgledy-piggledy
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Lost his pal Hallam to
Fever and flu.

“One-hundred thirty-one
Ultramemorial
Verses, and man, I still
Can’t bury you.”

In eight short lines, Stokesbury takes on two of Tennyson’s famous poems—“Morte d’Arthur” and “In Memoriam, ” playing off the first name of Arthur Henry Hallam, the subject of “In Memoriam.”

To be fair, this is one of only five “higgledy-piggledy” poems originally published with more familiar poetry in Stokesbury’s 1996 collection Autumn Rhythm: New and Selected Poems and included in You Are Here. (The other four express similar sentiments about Ralph Waldo Emerson, T.S. Eliot, his daughter Erin Elizabeth, and Sergei Eisenstein.) But the mischief, and the humor, show up in several other poems, if just a bit more restrained.

You Are Here includes 26 new poems and 44 selected poems from three previously published collections. They are arranged in reverse chronological order, leading with the new poems and finishing with the oldest ones. The arrangement reminded me of William Wordsworth’s line, “The child is father of the man” from his poem “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, ” but I don’t know if that was Stokesbury’s intention or not.

Stokesbury is something of an original. His subjects range from poets and famous names to his father’s accident, his mother’s death, growing up near the small southeastern Texas town of Silsbee, and even that historical marker of the Baby Boom generation, the assassination of President Kennedy.

This is one of the new poems I find particularly moving.

You Are Here Leon StokesburyEven Now

There have been times when the blood within
has ached with the thunder of horses,
has been like the din of a thousand horses’ hooves—

and still I can hear them pounding,
even now, when my mind is calm, the hooves of horses,
still filling my ears with their sound—

and the long rippling flanks are like pistons,
the rhythm of speed and sweat—
always the hunger of horses,

always the clamor and roar,
of my death I want only horses—
in my memory, nothing before.

I should point out that one of the new poems is a “higgledy-piggledy” poem aimed at Emily Dickinson.

Leon Stokesbury

Leon Stokesbury

Stokesbury received his M.A. and MFA degrees from the University of Arkansas and his Ph.D. from Florida State University. He teaches in the creative writing program at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

His poetry collections include Often in Different Landscapes (1976); The Royal Nonesuch (1984); The Drifting Away (1986); and Autumn Rhythm: New and Selected Poems (1996). He also served as editor of The Light the Dead See: The Selected Poems of Frank Stanford (1991) and of two poetry anthologies, one on Southern poetry and one on the poetry of World War II.

You Are Here is a funny, moving, thoughtful, and delightful collection.

Related:

Stokesbury’s interview at How a Poem Happens

Browse more poets and poems

Photo by Alexey Kljatov, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and A Light Shining, and Poetry at Work.
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“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

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Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
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Filed Under: Blog, Funny Poems, Humorous Poems, Poems, Poems about poetry, poetry, poetry humor, poetry reviews, Poets

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Comments

  1. Maureen says

    September 20, 2016 at 11:06 am

    Thank you for the introduction to Stokesbury, Glynn; he’s not a poet familiar to me, and I’m always glad to follow up on a discovery.

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      September 20, 2016 at 5:16 pm

      Thanks for reading the post, Maureen!

      Reply
  2. Bethany R. says

    September 20, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    I’m intrigued by a poet that can write pieces that both make you laugh out loud, and a piece like, Even Now.

    There’s something so satisfying about that line: “always the hunger of horses[.]”

    Thanks for this post.

    Reply
  3. Glynn says

    September 20, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    He does something that few poets do – he’s willing to write funny poems – I think because he enjoys what he’s doing (Billy Collins is another poet who’s comfortable doing this).

    Reply
    • Bethany says

      September 20, 2016 at 5:44 pm

      I’m excited to learn of another humorous poet. I have a few of Billy Collins’ books, and the collection, Poetry to Make You Smile (which I enjoy reading over and over). I would love to hear if you have any other recommendations.

      Reply
  4. Dave says

    September 25, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    Great review, Glynn. It has piqued my interest in picking up this book!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Poets and Poems: Frank Stanford and “The Light the Dead See” - says:
    October 18, 2016 at 5:00 am

    […] discovered Stanford while reading poet Leon Stokesbury’s most recent collection You are Here. Stokesbury teaches in the creative writing program at Georgia State University, and […]

    Reply
  2. Poetic Asides: Norman Nicholson and Frank Stanford - says:
    December 6, 2016 at 5:01 am

    […] Frank Stanford (1948-1978). I read the poetry collection You Are Here by Leon Stokesbury and, while writing the article, saw that he edited a collection of Stanford’s poetry entitled The Light the Dead See (1991). I […]

    Reply

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