Distributed for Tupelo Press
The Earliest Witnesses
In the poems of The Earliest Witnesses, witnesses need a place to begin-they spiral off from a walk, a church, an orchard, to go into deeper meditation about faith, earth, restraint, desire, and violence. Waldrep’s seventh collection begins where his prior collection, feast gently, left off: “This / is how the witness ends: touch, withdraw; touch again,” according to the opening poem. The status of witnesses is never constant and never settled in this book: sometimes, witnesses “foster,” “touch,” and “stain” the places they inhabit; other times, they befriend, or document, or think. Sometimes, witnesses forget themselves-in questions of blame and responsibility-and sometimes they feel forgotten and unknown. If these are poems of witness, then they are also testators to the craft of seeing: “Can you see this,” the ophthalmologist in “A Mystic’s Guide to Arches” asks over and over again. Here, sight facilitates and impedes desire; it colludes with language itself. “She said, When you say pear, I see p-e-a-r for a second before I see, in my mind’s eye, a pear,” Waldrep carefully records in “[West Stow Orchard Poem (II)].” The desire-poems in The Earliest Witnesses want the thing itself, its image of the mind, and the language that transmutes both thing and image into song.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
American Goshawk 3
Gaynham Camp 6
I Have a Fever and Its Name Is God 9
A Mystic’s Guide to Arches 11
Croyland Abbey 14
Mutter Museum with Owl 16
Native, Like a Quince 19
North Walsham 21
Broken Things 24
Never Ending Bells 25
Shall Bear Upon His Shoulder in the Twilight 27
On the Feast of the Holy Infants Killed for Christ’s Sake in Bethlehem 28
In Him Were Hidden All Our Tongues 29
Blue Heron, Marlborough 32
Jones Mountain Eclogue 35
The Constellations 36
On Being Mistaken for "Part of the Art" at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh 39
Only Coerce Yourself Gently, & Show 42
(Wordwell I) 44
(Wordwell II) 46
(Wordwell III) 48
On Hearing a Cuckoo at Pentecost 50
Pentecost, Risby 51
[West Stow Orchard (I)] 52
[West Stow Orchard (II)] 54
Denizen (West Stow Orchard) 56
[West Stow Orchard (III)] 57
[West Stow Orchard (IV)] 59
[West Stow Orchard (V)] 60
To the Bank Holiday Caravans in Eastnor Park 61
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (I)] 62
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (II)] 63
[Ely Cathedral] 64
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (III)] 66
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (IV)] 68
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (V)] 69
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (VI)] 71
Hephaestus in Norfolk 72
[Additional Eastnor Poem (I)] 74
[Additional Eastnor Poem (II)] 76
[Additional Eastnor Poem (III)] 77
[Additional Eastnor Poem (IV)] 80
[Additional Eastnor Poem (V)] 82
[Additional Eastnor Poem (VI)] 84
[Additional Eastnor Poem (VII)] 86
[Additional Eastnor Poem (VIII)] 88
[Additional Eastnor Poem (IX)] 90
[Additional Eastnor Poem (X)] 92
Hansen’s Disease 93
After the Abolition of Festivals 94
The Earliest Witnesses 95
[The Line, Its Sleek Ark. Stow] 97
[Llandyfeisant Church (I)] 98
Castle Woods, Dinefwr 99
[Dinefwr Castle (I)] 101
[Dryslwyn] 102
[Llandeilo Churchyard (I)] 104
[Llandeilo Churchyard (II)] 107
[Carn Goch] 109
[Carreglwyd] 112
[Llandyfeisant Church (II)] 113
Notes on Poems 117
Acknowledgments 121
American Goshawk 3
Gaynham Camp 6
I Have a Fever and Its Name Is God 9
A Mystic’s Guide to Arches 11
Croyland Abbey 14
Mutter Museum with Owl 16
Native, Like a Quince 19
North Walsham 21
Broken Things 24
Never Ending Bells 25
Shall Bear Upon His Shoulder in the Twilight 27
On the Feast of the Holy Infants Killed for Christ’s Sake in Bethlehem 28
In Him Were Hidden All Our Tongues 29
Blue Heron, Marlborough 32
Jones Mountain Eclogue 35
The Constellations 36
On Being Mistaken for "Part of the Art" at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh 39
Only Coerce Yourself Gently, & Show 42
(Wordwell I) 44
(Wordwell II) 46
(Wordwell III) 48
On Hearing a Cuckoo at Pentecost 50
Pentecost, Risby 51
[West Stow Orchard (I)] 52
[West Stow Orchard (II)] 54
Denizen (West Stow Orchard) 56
[West Stow Orchard (III)] 57
[West Stow Orchard (IV)] 59
[West Stow Orchard (V)] 60
To the Bank Holiday Caravans in Eastnor Park 61
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (I)] 62
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (II)] 63
[Ely Cathedral] 64
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (III)] 66
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (IV)] 68
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (V)] 69
[St Melangell’s Day, Eastnor (VI)] 71
Hephaestus in Norfolk 72
[Additional Eastnor Poem (I)] 74
[Additional Eastnor Poem (II)] 76
[Additional Eastnor Poem (III)] 77
[Additional Eastnor Poem (IV)] 80
[Additional Eastnor Poem (V)] 82
[Additional Eastnor Poem (VI)] 84
[Additional Eastnor Poem (VII)] 86
[Additional Eastnor Poem (VIII)] 88
[Additional Eastnor Poem (IX)] 90
[Additional Eastnor Poem (X)] 92
Hansen’s Disease 93
After the Abolition of Festivals 94
The Earliest Witnesses 95
[The Line, Its Sleek Ark. Stow] 97
[Llandyfeisant Church (I)] 98
Castle Woods, Dinefwr 99
[Dinefwr Castle (I)] 101
[Dryslwyn] 102
[Llandeilo Churchyard (I)] 104
[Llandeilo Churchyard (II)] 107
[Carn Goch] 109
[Carreglwyd] 112
[Llandyfeisant Church (II)] 113
Notes on Poems 117
Acknowledgments 121