Persons Unknown

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Thanks to the editors of the publications in which some of these poems have appeared previously: Blackbird—“And Ever” Cincinnati Review—“Mothlight” Crab Orchard Review—“A Natural History of Mississippi” Northwest Review—“Self Portrait as a Moment in 1963,” “SelfPortrait in a Plate-Glass Window,” “Self-Portrait at a Bend in the Road,” “Self-Portrait in the Town Where I Was Born,” and “Narcissus incomparabilis” Shenandoah—“Elegy” The Southern Review—“Homochitto,” “Darkly,” and “Shore” Sou’wester—“Sensitivity” and “City of Grace” Third Coast—“Before Knowing Remembers” and “The Second Person” Yalobusha Review—“The Hands of Persons Unknown” “Darkly” and “Self-Portrait at a Bend in the Road” also appear as video poems, filmed by Steve Bransford at southernspaces.org. With special thanks to Don Bogen, Garrett Hongo, Mary Flinn and the staff of Blackbird, and Jeanne Lieby and the staff of The Southern Review. “Collect” appears as a limited edition broadside designed by Jan Murray of the University of Mississippi, for whom and to whom adequate thanks cannot be given. Thanks to the judges of the 2008 Campbell Corner Poetry Prize, who recognized “Collect” as a distinguished entry. ix Thanks to the editors of Third Coast and final judge David Wojahn for selecting “Before Knowing Remembers” as winner of the 2010 Third Coast Poetry Prize and honoring “The Second Person” as runner-up. Thanks to the Regents of the University of Colorado for sabbatical leave during which this book was begun, and to the University of Mississippi for a residency that allowed me to complete this book. Thanks to Jon Tribble for believing in this work, and to the staff of Southern Illinois University Press, especially Bridget Brown, Barb Martin, and Jennifer Fandel; and thanks too to Sarah McCarttJackson and Travis Mossotti for their help preparing this manuscript for press. And to all my teachers, readers, and friends who have helped me find my way, especially Natasha Trethewey, Major Jackson, Ed Pavlic, Dan Albergotti, Harvey Jackson, David Keplinger, Dan Donaghy, Brian Barker, Maurice Manning, Ron Slate, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Noah Eli Gordon, Joshua Poteat, Dave Smith, R. T. Smith, Claudia Emerson, Jeanie Thompson, and Sarah Skeen. x ...