Swim Like the Bee

good-natured humor and expert craftsmanship. Ultimately, Boyd's book aptly adds to the tradition of storytelling, which is so much a part ofAppalachian people's heritage. His authentic voice will draw many to this book. Readers will recaU other men in other places spitting and wWttling, and teUing tales about times we dare not forget. And we won't as long as we have writers like Boyd S. Ray around. —Marshall Myers Swim Like the Bee Take offyour glasses the next time the wind tosses the sunflowers, late in the season, when nodding foxtail arches gracefully at the edge ofthe garden plot. Don't try to focus, let your eyesight blow with the invisible air, sift itself through petals and seeds, leaves and goldfinches. Let it bounce and tumble; let your eyesight swim like a bee through golden pollen. Look different-eyed at the flowering cosmos; look different-eyed at the late mustard— curl with it in the autumn soil, cool and well-packed with working and walking. Study the spaces between the shapes. Feel the light. Empathize with the ways ofthe winds and weeds, ofthe planned and tended. When the time is right, renest your glasses atop your nose and go about your life, new. —Rebecca Bailey 69 ...