So Quietly the Earth

by David Lee

Overview

“One can only wish for more poets like David Lee.”—Chowder Review

Set in the American Southwest, So Quietly the Earth is a book of landscape meditations on philosophical, theological and environmental issues. Radically departing from his justly famous narratives of rural life, David Lee weaves the archetypal elements of earth, fire, water, and air throughout his poems as he explores spiritual connections to the natural world.

David Lee, author of 15 books of poems, was named Utah’s first Poet Laureate and in 2001 was a finalist for the United States Poet Laureate. A former seminary candidate, semi-pro baseball player and hog farmer, he recently retired as the head of the languages and literature department at Southern Utah University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556592041
Publisher:	Copper Canyon Press
Publication date:	06/01/2004
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

David Lee, author of eight books of poetry, was Utah's first Poet Laureate. A former seminary candidate, semi-pro baseball player, and hog farmer, he has a Ph.D. with a concentration in Milton and is the recently retired head of the Languages and Literature department at Southern Utah University.

Table of Contents

	Canyonlands Requiem	3
1
	Dawn Psalm, Pine Valley	7
	Alpine Pond, Cedar Breaks	9
	The Grand Staircase	11
	Paragonah in the Rhythm of Birdsong	14
	Idyll: Found Poem	15
	While Walking (I)	16
	Summer Count: Wyethia arizonica	17
	Abandoned Cabin on the Clark Ranch: Solstice	18
	On Turning Up a Fossil in My Garden	20
	Cedar Breaks	21
	While Walking (II)	22
	Postcard to Sam from Paragonah	23
	Aspen Pole Fence	24
	Idyll for a Collapsing Season	26
	While Walking (III)	27
	Autumn	28
	Yovimpa Point	29
	Bright Angel Point at Sunset	31
	Parowan Canyon	32
	While Walking (IV)	33
	Pit Stop at Parowan Gap on a Windy Night	34
	Zion Narrows	35
	After the Tree Came Down	36
	Kaiparowits Plateau	37
	Psalm Written after Reading Cormac McCarthy and Taking a Three-Hour Climb to the Top of Pine Valley Mountain	38
2
	Dry Lightning: Thor, in Disguise, Searches for Freya	41
	Sonnet on the Sun, Rising	42
	Dead Horse Point	43
	Ode beneath a Hummingbird Feeder	44
	Blowup Site, Williamson's Ranch	45
	While Walking (V)	46
	Lightning above the North Fields: Still Life with Rhyming Pronouns	47
	On Finding a Drone Bee and a Painted Lady Butterfly in the Same Claret Cup Cactus Blossom	48
	Cedar Mountain	49
	While Walking (VI)	50
	Field Trip: Grand Canyon, North Rim	51
	While Walking (VII)	53
	Mountain Meadows	54
	Canyonlands, Eden	55
	Betatakin	57
	While Walking (VIII)	58
	Midnight Mass, Escalante	59
3
	Matins	63
	Five-Year Drought: Small September Cloudburst on Pine Valley	64
	South Gorge, Moab	65
	While Walking (IX)	67
	On the Drowned Town of Thistle beneath the Lake Caused by the Great Mudslide	68
	Roots	70
	Kolob at Evening	71
	While Walking (X)	72
	On the Gift of an Acorn Picked Up at the Site of Thoreau's Cabin	73
	Tomorrow's Artifact: A Short Essay on Anthropocentric Mythopoeia	74
	Rainy Day in Pine Valley	75
	Dawn Song, Last Tango in Eden	77
	While Walking (XI)	78
	Cloudburst with Duckling at the Pond's Inlet	79
	Rhapsody in Slickrock: A Song for the Roadrunner	80
4
	Paragonah Canyon--Autumn	91
	While Walking (XII)	121
	Requiem	125
	About the Author	127

Editorial Reviews

Those familiar with Lee (e.g., Driving and Drinking) are used to his conjuring of rural voices, i.e., those of people in the American Southwest who push a truck hard through the night or set out on a mission to raise pigs. While his poetry may be most appreciated for its wry, rustic humor and oh-so-simple wisdom, the heavy load of meditations on things philosophical, theological, and even environmental here will not be a great surprise. These poems are a walking journey, from dawn to dusk, through the seasons and the elements: "Just before dawn the sky darkens. Barely/ perceptible. At times on the ocean or great plains/ a green flash follows. Prelude. Or anthem./ And then sun." When we hear now, as we often do, that this land "was so beautiful," Lee is here to tell us, to show us, that it still is. In every direction, he finds a star, a light, a charm: "Today:/ a beer can/ floating in Wahweap Basin./ Coors,/ Rocky Mountain Spring Water,/ on course,/ of course." One of the truly original voices in contemporary American poetry; recommended.-Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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