| Taking as her touchstone poet Seamus Heaney's verse "We come back emptied,
/ to nourish and resist / the words of coming to rest," Kathryn
Stripling Byer in these poems engages the contradictions inherent
in the act of coming home. She explores the step-by-step leaving
and returning—and finding "home" transformed because of the
journey. Seamless lines of poetry weave together experiences
as a daughter and a mother, the challenges of aging, the innate
dignity of domestic life, and learning to let go while holding
fast to what matters all the while. Byer gathers the trivial
things that make up our lives and shows their meaningful connections,
our movement toward discovery. In Coming to Rest,
she expands upon the great themes of the poetic tradition.
from "Chicago Bound"
. . . Just a little while longer, we'll be on the ground
where we'll hop a train south to the campus, a place I like
better than this flimsy
carpet of clouds on which I cannot walk to you. I need
green fields to do that, some tough city blocks, Kimbark,
Ellis, East Hyde Park. Give me boulevard, avenue,
chemin, rue, strasse, calle, avenida, el camino, whatever
you want to call it, Baby, if it's down there on earth where
you are, it's Sweet Home. I'll take it.
Kathryn Stripling Byer has published four
previous books of poetry, including Catching Light,
winner of the Southeast Booksellers Association Award for
Poetry. Among her other accolades are the Lamont Poetry Selection
for Wildwood Flower, the Roanoke-Chowan Poetry Prize
and the Brockman-Campbell Award for Black Shawl, a
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and appointment
as Poet Laureate of North Carolina. She lives in Cullowhee,
located in the western mountains of the state.
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