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North True South Bright

This smart, lyrical collection explores the dangers of a world so complex that no single consciousness may grasp it — however much the attempt must be made. Following historical and imagined figures as they encounter specific moments or objects (such as Thomas Hariot in the Ameri-can Wilderness of the late 16th century), the poems attempt to record the unraveling of the safe and singular into a multiplicity of unknowns. Impelled by metaphor and lilting repetition, North True South Bright seeks a sense of the world, and ultimately, a sense of the Infinite.

Hariot’s Round

I know, to entice, to convince, I must sing

Your ear inside stone, must sing

Gold bitten and true, the corn kernel, one seed,

I must plant one gold seed in your mouth with my lips.

Raleigh says: the Queen known my name. The Crown

Of a woodpecker is ruby, but shy.

Inhabitants adorn themselves with feathers, and feathers

Bright on arrow ends. Bow — before a Queen. Bend closed my book.

The page is deaf that turns back to look at what it found.

"In North True South Bright, Dan Beachy-Quick proves the compass of his eye to be perfectly exact, precisely true. These poems are finely made contemporaries of sunlight. And, like sunlight, their history is Now." — Donald Revell

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 63
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781882295388
  • Genres
  • poetry
  • Release date
  • 2003