the naked scarecrow poems by richard moore Truman State University Press New Odyssey Series
First New Odyssey edition published 2000. Copyright 2000 Truman State University Press. http://www2.truman.edu/tsup All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any format by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Body type: Minion 11. Display type: Adobe Garamond 14. Printed in the United States of America. Cover concept: John Blee. Cover art: Nicole Anne Timmins. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moore, Richard. The naked scarecrow: poems / Richard Moore. p. cm. ISBN 0-943549 59 0 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Title PS3563.O63 N35 1999 811.54 dc21 99 052247 The paper in this publication meets or exceeds the minimum requirements of the American National Standard Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48 (1984).
for Claudia Gary Annis
contents Aknowledgments vii The Naked Scarecrow 1 one withered into art 3 The Defense 5 Man, Boy, Birds 6 Golfballs 7 Depths 8 Cat s Castle 9 Variations on a Dog 11 Back Then 14 The Visitors 15 Marriage Blues 16 The Tennis Ball 17 Nightfall 18 Epilogue 19 two the giant redwood 21 Ancestral Memories 23 Spring 1968 26 Poem about Vietnam That Didn t Suit Anybody at the Time 28 On the Municipal Golf Course 30 The Little Man Speaks 31 In Memory of One of the Better Ones 33 For My Country in Its Finest Hour 34 The Cycles of Things 35 Caesar 36 The Creation 37 v
three seeming to live 39 Waiters 41 Apology 42 Report Card 45 Volumnia s Offspring 47 Haunted 48 The Time 49 April Is the Cruelest Month 50 The Passionate Shepherd s Return 51 four the veil 53 Continuity 55 Nowhere 56 In Future Time 57 Premonition 58 The New Order 60 After the Ice 61 The Veil 62 The Playground 64 Survivors 65 The Old Men 66 The Stream 67 vi
Acknowledgments The following poems in this collection have been published or accepted for publication in the following journals and books: Anthology of Magazine Verse, 1987 for The Visitors, Chronicles for Caesar, The Creation, The Cycles of Things, The Defense, In Memory of One of the Better Ones, On the Municipal Golf Course, and The Passionate Shepherd s Return, Contemporary New England Poets for The Visitors, Counter/Measures for Cat s Castle and The Little Man Speaks, The Denver Quarterly for Back Then, Dictionary of Literary Biography for The Naken Scarecrow, The Direction of Poetry for The Visitors, The Formalist for Man, Boys, Birds, The Stream, and Volumnia s Offspring, The Georgia Review for After the Ice, In Future Time, and Premonition, Hellas for April Is the Cruelest Month, Golfballs, Poem about Vietnam That Didn t Suit Anybody at the Time, Spring 1968, and The Veil, The Lyric for The Old Men, Modern Occassions for Ancestral Memories, Negative Capability for Nowhere, The Neovictorian for The Naked Scarecrow, The New Criterion for The Time, The New Orleans Review for Report Card, Plains Poetry Journal for After the Ice, Cat s Castle, Continuity, Depths, Epilogue, The New Order, Nightfall, Premonition, Report Card, and The Visitors, Ploughshares for Survivors, Poetry for Continuity, Marriage Blues, The Playgrounf, and The Tennis Ball, Potpourri for The Old Men, Salmagundi for Nightfall and Variations on a Dog, Sewanee Review for The Defense, The Southern Review for Apology and The Visitors, Sparrow for April Is the Cruelest Month, and The Tennessee Quarterly for Waiters. vii