In this Book
- Blacksnake at the Family Reunion: Poems
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Louisiana State University Press
- Series: Southern Messenger Poets
David Huddle's latest collection, Blacksnake at the Family Reunion, shares intimate and amusing stories as if told by a quirky, usually reticent, great uncle. In "Boy Story," a teenage romantic meeting ends abruptly when the boy's sweetheart realizes they have parked near her grandmother's grave. The poem "Aloft" recalls a widowed mother's indignation after she receives a marriage proposal in a hot air balloon. Haunted by the words on his older sister's tombstone -- "born & died... then / a single date / in November" -- the speaker in one poem struggles to understand a tragic loss: "The ampersand / tells the whole truth / and nothing but, / so help me God, / whose divine shrug / is expressed so / eloquently / by that grave mark."
Blacksnake at the Family Reunion continues Huddle's poetic inquiry into the power of early childhood and family to infuse adulthood with sadness and despair -- an inquiry conducted with profound empathy for the fragility of humankind.
Table of Contents
- Blacksnake at the Family Reunion
- pp. 1-14
- 1953 Dodge Coronet
- pp. 4-5
- This Morning
- pp. 6-19
- Mother Song
- pp. 7-20
- Burned Man
- pp. 11-24
- Your Father Would Be Ashamed of You
- pp. 12-25
- What the Stone Says
- pp. 13-14
- When I Wore a Yellow Polka Dot Dress
- pp. 15-28
- Thick and Thin
- pp. 18-20
- Strangers at Twilight
- pp. 22-35
- She and My Granddad
- pp. 23-36
- The Anxiety of Influence
- pp. 24-26
- Hard Drive
- pp. 32-35
- In My Other Life
- pp. 36-37
- The Husband’s Tale
- pp. 38-46
- Weather Report
- pp. 47-60
- Hilltop Sonnet
- pp. 48-61
- Roanoke Pastorale
- pp. 49-62
- Linguistics 101
- pp. 50-52
- Beautiful Aunt
- pp. 53-55