Drive, They Said: Poems about Americans and Their CarsKurt Brown What icon better defines America's experiences, dreams, foibles, escapes, and obsessions than the automobile? And what experience more perfectly captures the American spirit - moving on, westering, wandering - than driving? In this anthology, editor Kurt Brown collects the best of the innumerable poems that have made driving their emblem during the century known as the Automobile Age. Poems from nearly one hundred contemporary writers are gathered in this hommage to America's obsession with the automobile, including Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Bly, Rosellen Brown, Hayden Carruth, Rita Dove, Joy Harjo, and Thomas McGrath. The anthology's sections define driving as "the rolling forward toward the future" for both men and women; the meditative aspects of driving into the self; the experience of stopping by the side of the road as we rush wildly across the map; the crossing of destinies; the allegories of life itself. |
Contents
Driving to Houston Linda Gregg | 7 |
Perpetual Motion Tony Hoagland | 9 |
Hitting the Road Donald Finkel | 16 |
Black Road over which Green Trees Grow Thomas Lux | 22 |
Cutting Loose on an August Night Jonathan Holden | 29 |
Pickup Philip Booth | 35 |
Every Spring on Certain Nights Veronica Patterson | 42 |
Highway Gene Zeiger | 48 |
Stopping by the Side of the Road | 129 |
Rosebud Jon Anderson | 135 |
Bison and Ass Karen Swenson | 142 |
Rest Stop Barbara M Smith | 148 |
Beer Kurt Brown | 155 |
The Cows at Night Hayden Carruth | 160 |
Great Basin Blues Bruce Berger | 166 |
Travelling through the Dark William Stafford | 172 |
As the Birds Terese Svoboda | 54 |
Reasons for Wanting to Have Children Sheryl St Germain | 67 |
Mimosa Deborah Digges | 76 |
Fences Ki Davis | 83 |
Virginia Evening Michael Pettit | 96 |
Driving alongside the Housatonic River Alone on a Rainy April | 103 |
Driving into the Hurricane Sheryl St Germain | 109 |
See Chile in My Rearview Mirror Agha Shahid Ali | 116 |
Lonesome Pine Special Charles Wright | 122 |
The Weather Is Brought to You J D Reed | 178 |
I hit the tree from Cora Fry Rosellen Brown | 184 |
License to Operate a Motor Vehicle J D Reed | 191 |
Driving the Blizzard Jonathan Holden | 197 |
The House in the Road Henry Taylor | 204 |
13th Aloha Daniel Hall | 210 |
A Trucker Drives through His Lost Youth David Bottoms | 325 |
Copyright | |