Blue-Tail Fly

Notes on the Poems

75 “Blue-Tail Fly,” also known as “Jimmy Crack Corn,” was a popular song among slaves. It is not known whether the song originated in the minstrel shows of the times or was an adaptation of a slave ditty recounting the curious demise of a master bucked by a horse bitten by the seemingly insignificant blue-tail fly. “The Binding Tie” is loosely based upon a story my grandmother Vicey Smith (now deceased) told me some years ago about her grandparents. “The Finishing Thoughts of Festus Spenser as He Looks into the Camera” actually combines the story of three brothers, Festus , Tennant, and Griffith. Todd Spenser of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a descendant of these brothers, recounted the tale to me. Corporal Festus Spenser survived several campaigns over three years. The quote in “General Taylor Convinces Himself That He Is for War,” which supports President Polk’s prowar position, is taken from the Washington Union newspaper, 1845. Poet Carol Was brought to my attention the story of Michigan’s Pokagon, recalled in “Pokagon Accepts Colonel Taylor’s Invitation” and “Colonel Zachary Taylor Has Pokagon for Tea.” His story is “sentimentally” told in Tonquish Tales by Helen Frances Gilbert (Plymouth, Mich.: Pilgrim Heritage Press, 1984). “Fragments of a Camp near Yorktown” is based on letters between Edwin Strong and his beloved sister. Their letters were given to me by a descendant of Edwin’s, poet David Strong. In “Dear Mother,” the line “Mustn’t Johnny go for a soldier” refers to a song made popular during the Revolutionary War, “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” perhaps a version of the seventeenthcentury Irish tune “Shule Aroon,” also known as “Buttermilk Hill.” “A Singular Dispersion over Franklin, Tennessee” is not based on the Battle of Franklin but on a tale told to me by poet Paula Roper of Knoxville while I was writing in the cemetery there. The title “The White Immensities” is a phrase from Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend (New York: Knopf, 2002). Notes on the Poems This page intentionally left blank ...