Split the Lark: Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry) [Paperback]

R. T. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Salmon Poetry | Publication Date: March 2000

The poems of Split the Lark record one man's mission to find the mythic in the social, the crucial in the casual, the supernatural in the natural. R. T. Smith's precise images and quietly modulated music cast a wide net, engaging Native American customs and history, the forested mysteries of the American South, the habits of birds and one traveler's ruminations on the people, conflicts and stories of Ireland. This gathering of poems scanning two decades displays, as Eamon Grennan said of Smith's collection Trespasser, "a language at once taut and sensuous, speedy but carefully controlled."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ardea Herodias
Audubon's Cardinal
Bear Mischief
Believing In A Circle
Beneath The Mound
The Bird Carver
Black Shawl
The Call
Cardinal Directions
The Cardinal Heart
Concentric
Emily's Bread Cradle
Fearing Extinction
The First Days Of April Bring A Stillness
Full Moon With Bells
Haft Blossom
Harpwing
Illumination
In First Light
Jubilee
Lilting
Linen List
The Long Joke
Lucia
Lullaby Angel
The Magdalene
Making The Snowshoes
Mist Net
The Names Of Trees
Nightmusic
Old Photograph: 1910
On Laraine's Grave Hill
Passage To Kilronan
Playing The Bones
Prelude
Red Anger
The Rushes
Second Waking
Skull, Grim And Grinning
Sourwood
Spectator
Split Lark
Susan Gilbert Dickinson, 1887
This Invasion
Vespers
A Victory
Walter Anderson's J
We Found
What Black Elk Said
Whittling Toward The Unseen
Widow To Her Son
Yonosa House
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

R.T. Smith was born in Washington, D.C., and has lived in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Virginia. He has taught at Appalachian State University, Auburn University, where he served as Alumni Writer-in-Residence and co-editor of Southern Humanities Review, and Washington and Lee University. His collections The Cardinal Heart and Trespasser were nominees for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and he has received grants in literature from the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts International. In 1998 he was Artist-in-Residence at the National Historical Park at Harpers Ferry, WV. He has been a resident at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the Wurlitzer Foundation and the Millay Colony and has spent extensive time in Ireland, notably Galway. Mr. Smith, whose collection of stories is entitled Faith, currently resides in Rockbridge County, Virginia, where he edits Shenandoah and is currently working on an anthology to be entitled Shine in Darkness, 100 Poems of the Moon.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: Salmon Poetry; Edition Unstated edition (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897648480
• ISBN-13: 978-1897648483
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,995,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Start slow, finish with a wow, March 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Split the Lark: Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry) (Paperback)

For a long time Smith was a quiet and careful poet who wasn't exactly original or ambitious, but you could trust hi. His poems fit tight and set loose all sorts of thoughts. In this book you can see how he did it, going from the downhome poems to the worldly political stuff. He's still a poete you can trust, but you can also be inspired by him.