National Poetry Month

Christina Seymour's generous, insightful When is a Burning Tree shines its brilliance on the unexpected lyrical connections between the human world and the natural one so that under its influence we recognize even "the earthworm, with its two sexes and five impossible hearts" or "the tiniest snail gripping rock-face" as fellow travelers exactly as humble as ourselves. --Lisa Lewis, author of The Body Double and Burned House with Swimming Pool

Collected poems of Edwin R. Hunter, alumnus (Class of 1914) and English Professor and Dean at Maryville College (1918 - 1967).

Online - Collected poems of Edwin R. Hunter, alumnus (Class of 1914) and English Professor and Dean at Maryville College (1918 - 1967).

The speakers in Ted Higgs'A Love Embargoearn our close attention and trust. From these poems come an acuity of observation, wisdom from the sharp images of memory, all of it articulated with the clarity of a walk "out under a moon across the bridge." There are mysteries to confront, explore, unravel: library ghosts, ancient sealed invitations, a wampus cat, a pearl-handled knife from someone else's nightmare. In "Search Engine Blues" the mundane turns into a profound and surprising meditation on memory, friendship, and mortality. In "Pavilion" the commonplace scent of barbeque at the edge of a forest becomes a "dialect of smoke." Follow along on these journeys with Higgs; in these poems you will recognize powerful sketches of despair set against the quiet defiance of love and eloquence, prescriptions against the hopeless winter in our souls. --Kim Trevathan, author of Against the Current: Paddling Upstream on the Tennessee River

In Scoring the Darkness, Ted Higgs charts the trajectory of "a minefield of memories," hurtling through countries, relationships, tragedies, war, and art. Like the analog of an old cassette tape, the past here speaks back, recalling moments of beauty, absurdity, and loss, hovering between music and silence. --Clay Matthews author of Shore, and Four-way Lug Wrench

First edition of Ted Higgs' volume of poems Plank by Plank that is a wondrous read He takes the reader into the space of creation with poems about people, places, art and the act of creation.

Ted Higgs has been reading and writing poetry for a long time and the beautifully crafted poems collected here represent a lifetime's practice of distilling the deep feelings of experience into thoughtful poetic lines. His articulate and often mellifluous long sentences unfold layers of consciousness, finding "something fundamental in the darkness." Frequently, Higgs reveals "the hidden ciphers" of time lost as well as the "loves and sorrows yet to come." Just as the poem "Closing the Closet Door" warns, "don't let your words become as predictable / as snow," Higgs's poems explore universal subjects but always in surprising ways. These are intelligent, sensitive poems that deserve to be read again and again. --Matt Brennan