The Eagle’s Mile

Word

III. Word Heat makes this, heat makes any Word: human lungs, Human lips. Not like eternity, which, naked, every time Will call on lightning To say it all: No after Or before. We try for that And fail. Our voice Fails, but for an instant Is like the other; breath alone That came as though humanly panting From far back, in unspeakably beautiful Empty space And struck: at just this moment Found the word "golden." 66 This page intentionally left blank About the Author James Dickey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his B.A. (1949) and M.A. (1950) from Vanderbilt University in between two military stints, in the U.S. Army Air Force during the Second World War and in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Dickey's previous books with Wesleyan include Drowning with Others (1962), Helmets (1962), Buckdancer 's Choice (1965), Falling, May Day Sermon, and Other Poems (1981), The Early Motion (1982.), and The Central Motion: Poems 19681979 (1983). Dickey has received many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Book Award and Melville Cane Award for Buckdancer 's Choice, and the French Prix Medicis for his novel Deliverance. He is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1989 he was named judge for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. James Dickey is Carolina Professor and Poet-in-Residence at the University of South Carolina and lives in Columbia. About the Book The Eagle's Mile was composed on the Mergenthaler 202 in Sabon, a contemporary typeface based on classical prototypes. It was designed in 1964 by Jan Tschichold and based on the original types of Claude Garamond . This excellent typeface with gracefully bracketed serifs isperfectly suited to book composition. The Eagle's Mile was composed by Marathon Typography Service, Inc., Durham, North Carolina, and designed and produced by Kachergis Book Design, Pittsboro, North Carolina. Wesleyan Poetry ...