Poem of the Week | August 15, 2016
George Kalamaras: "The World as Hound Scent in Wind"
This week, we are excited to offer a new poem by George Kalamaras. Kalamaras, former Poet Laureate of Indiana (2014-2016), is the author of fifteen books of poetry, eight of which are full length, including Kingdom of Throat-Stuck Luck, winner of the Elixir Press Poetry Prize (2011), and The Theory and Function of Mangoes, winner of the Four Way Books Intro Series (2000). He is Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he has taught since 1990.
Author’s note:
This poem is from a recent manuscript of mine about hound dogs—beagles, bluetick coonhounds, redbone coonhounds, and others. While I love dogs in general, I’ve always been particularly fond of hounds. They are such no frills, working-class dogs. They equally love trouncing through the leaves on an autumn day and lounging on the sofa by a fire. The genesis of this poem was to come at hound dogs as the hounds they are but also as a spiritual presence inside the psyche of the speaker and, because of this, a source of words and language helping us come to know and make the world.
The World as Hound Scent in Wind
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