Don’t Leave Hungry

Fifty Years of Southern Poetry Review

Edited by James Smith

Publication Year: 2009

This substantial anthology charts the development of this influential journal decade by decade, making clear that although it has close ties to a particular region, it has consistently maintained a national scope, publishing poets from all over the United States. SPR’s goal has been to celebrate the poem above all, so although there are poems by major poets here, there are many gems by less famous, perhaps even obscure, writers too. Here are 183 poems by nearly as many poets, from A. R. Ammons, Kathryn Stripling Byer, James Dickey, Mark Doty, Claudia Emerson, David Ignatow, and Carolyn Kizer to Ted Kooser, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, Howard Nemerov, Sharon Olds, Linda Pastan, and Charles Wright.

Published by: University of Arkansas Press

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To be honest, I had never heard of Southern Poetry Review before I submitted some of my poems to them in the 1970s. Such a confession says nothing about the reputation of the journal but rather speaks of my ignorance of the literary marketplace at the time, as well as my then-shameless...

Introduction

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pp. xxix-xxxv

Literary journals often keep the imprint of their founders all their lives, especially if those lives are short, as they tend to be, although Southern Poetry Review proves an exception there—fifty years old, and counting. When Guy Owen published SPR’s fifteenth-anniversary anthology with...

1. The Late 1950s and the 1960s

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, Guy Owen shaped his journal’s identity, and so it is fitting how often poems about identity and boundaries show up in its pages during these years (see Ammons’s “Periphery” and Brosman’s “A Question of Identity” in this section). ...

Praise to be Eve

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pp. 5-

The Falls

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pp. 6-7

For Jake Flickner

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pp. 8-

Edgar's Story; Desecrations on a Theme

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pp. 9-10

Tilghman Point

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pp. 11-

Lady of Leisure

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pp. 12-

The Attic, The House; The Risk

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pp. 13-14

Cavafy

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pp. 15-

Arches and Shadows

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pp. 16-

Clearing Away

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pp. 17-

A Night Song for Anne Jones

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pp. 18-19

Periphery

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pp. 20-

High Country

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pp. 21-

Office Girls; Deliveries from Viet Nam

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pp. 22-23

King Francis and the Maid

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pp. 24-

To My Children, Fearing for Them

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pp. 25-

Two Old People

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pp. 26-27

The Sons

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pp. 28-

The Comet

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pp. 29-

The Warehouse Chute

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pp. 30-31

Goat & Boy

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pp. 32-

A Question of Identity

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pp. 33-34

Yvor Winters

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pp. 35-

Language of Flowers

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pp. 36-

A Family Romance

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pp. 37-38

2. The 1970s

Throughout the 1960s Southern Poetry Review sought and fashioned its identity. In the 1970s, the journal found its confident stride. Issue after issue, one marvels over consistently strong poems. Writers who will become “big” names in the world of American poetry show up here early...

The Flying Change; The Muse Once More

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pp. 41-43

Heights, Depths, Silence, Unceasing Sound of the Surf

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pp. 44-

How America Came to the Mountains

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pp. 45-46

Letter to Borges

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pp. 47-

The New Dolores Leather Bar; Adding Rattles

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pp. 48-49

6 Lines for Chi K'ang; November; Venetian Spring

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pp. 50-51

The Domesticians

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pp. 52-

Dawn Wind Unlocks the River Sky

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pp. 53-55

Trainer's Temper Bars Him from His Beloved Elephants

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pp. 56-57

My Father's Friends

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pp. 58-

Drift

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pp. 59-

Seeds

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pp. 60-

Vertigo

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pp. 61-

Out of the Sea, at Hatteras

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pp. 62-63

Without Guilt, the Rural Carrier Reads a Postcard

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pp. 64-

Understanding; Cool

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pp. 65-66

He Makes a House Call

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pp. 67-68

How It Passes

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pp. 69-70

The Summer

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pp. 71-

York Harbor Morning

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pp. 72-

The Rider

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pp. 73-

Creation Myth

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pp. 74-75

Two Untitled Poems

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pp. 76-77

Hogpen; Plankroad

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pp. 78-80

St. Louis Pencil Salesman Blues

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pp. 81-

Lines After Larkin: The Pornographic Movie

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pp. 82-

Drought

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pp. 83-84

Getting Experience;

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pp. 85-87

Yom Kippur

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pp. 88-

Snow Log

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pp. 89-

Another Sentimental Journey

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pp. 90-91

There Was a Song; In the Restaurant

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pp. 92-93

A Couple, A Domestic Interior

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pp. 94-

Murder

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pp. 95-96

Crazy Tuttle

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pp. 97-

L'Histoire

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pp. 98-

The Birthday

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pp. 99-100

Don't Leave Hungry

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pp. 101-

Mother Talking in the Porch Swing

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pp. 102-

3. The 1980s

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pp. 103-105

Robert Grey edited Southern Poetry Review from the Fall issue of 1978 until the Fall issue of 1990. Although Owen had maintained a core of staff members over the years, many people served shorter stints along the way. With fewer comings and goings, Grey’s smaller main staff held in place for twelve years. ...

The Poet Visits Egypt and Israel

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pp. 106-111

Refuge

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pp. 112-

Mary Mihalik

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pp. 113-114

Loss of Power

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pp. 115-

Shrine

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pp. 116-117

Solstice

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pp. 118-

Pure Jesus, Early Morning Shift

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pp. 119-

The Rest

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pp. 120-

A Tumbleweed from Texas

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pp. 121-

Burials

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pp. 122-123

Umpire

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pp. 124-125

Summer Darkness

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pp. 126-

Taking Stock of Feelings

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pp. 127-

The Defiance of Heroes

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pp. 128-

Chipped Tooth

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pp. 129-

A Wreath of Stars: Symsonia, Kentucky, 1914

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pp. 130-131

New South

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pp. 132-134

Daddy-long-legs

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pp. 135-

Somewhere: How Can We Leave It Now?

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pp. 136-137

La Tristeza

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pp. 138-

The Shadow

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pp. 139-140

Grass

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pp. 141-

For the Woman in Her Station Wagon Weeping at a Red Light

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pp. 142-143

Last Sunday in October

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pp. 144-

Spider Eggs

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pp. 145-

Tree of Babel

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pp. 146-147

Sonnets for a Diabetic

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pp. 148-149

There Was a Place We Could Have Met

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pp. 150-

It Begins

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pp. 151-

Off

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pp. 152-153

Helen Approaching

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pp. 154-

Garbage

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pp. 155-156

Jericho's

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pp. 157-

Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery

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pp. 158-160

Bonsai

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pp. 161-162

Forever Mountain

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pp. 163-164

Carp

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pp. 165-167

4. The 1990s

Prozac, 1987. In 1993, the seminal book Listening to Prozac by Peter Kramer, a practicing psychiatrist, questioned the ethics of altering personality through this new type of drug, which he acknowledged as effective and transformative. In the 1990s millions of Americans took some form of antidepressant. ...

Against Healing

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pp. 171-172

Paleolithic

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pp. 173-

Georgic: For My Friends Who Never Find Any

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pp. 174-175

Los Alamos

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pp. 176-177

It seems to her now

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pp. 178-179

After

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pp. 180-181

Living Mysteries

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pp. 182-

Mammogram

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pp. 183-184

The Weight of Knowledge

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pp. 185-186

Psychic Healers

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pp. 187-189

Desire

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pp. 190-

Glass House

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pp. 191-192

The Word

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pp. 193-195

Webs (I)

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pp. 196-

Making Love at the Budget Host Motel

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pp. 197-198

Coming into the River Parishes

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pp. 199-200

The Silence We Cannot Imagine

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pp. 201-

Somewhere in a House Where You Are Not

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pp. 202-203

A Legacy

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pp. 204-206

Passion Week, 1966

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pp. 207-208

The Trouble Now

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pp. 209-

Mounding Potatoes

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pp. 210-211

Singing Hymns to Go to Sleep

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pp. 212-213

Preserves

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pp. 214-215

Words for the Body

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pp. 216-

Permission

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pp. 217-218

First Kiss

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pp. 219-220

To Write the New Yorker Poem

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pp. 221-222

Hard Water

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pp. 223-

Body and Soul

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pp. 224-227

Laying Out the Dead

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pp. 228-229

Not Counting the Men

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pp. 230-231

Finishing the Puzzle

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pp. 232-233

Did You Know I Love You

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pp. 234-235

Crossing the Border

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pp. 236-239

Paying the Anesthesiologist

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pp. 240-241

American Insomnia

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pp. 242-243

5. The 2000s

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pp. 245-247

In 2002, Southern Poetry Review made a move as significant as Guy Owen’s relocation of the journal from Florida to North Carolina in 1964. After Robert Parham accepted the position of editor, SPR came to Savannah, Georgia, from Charlotte, North Carolina, and as discussed in the introduction...