The Art of Dying: Poems

Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press, 1999. First? Edition. First? Printing. Wraps. very good. 116 pages, wraps. Signed by the author. Red Hawk teaches English at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He has written four books of poetry, and counts among his greatest fans a collection of critics that include Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award Winners and a Poet Laureate of the United States. What makes Red Hawk maybe the most unique voice in American poetry? One thing all his critics agree on: spare language, plain, even everyday...."until the insight that you didn't see coming hits you and takes your breath away." Red Hawk gives his own rules of thumb for writing: Always tell the truth no matter how bad you think it makes you look. Write what's in your body, what you know. The copyright identifies Red Hawk as Robert Moore. Some poems appeared earlier in other publications. From a review by Elsa-Brita Titchenell posted on-line: "This slender book of verse contains a rare example of true poetry. Too often a string of words appears in print, poorly chosen prose cut into fragments to resemble free verse, but having none of the grace or inspiration to move the reader or to rouse a resonance in his mind. In Red Hawk's poetry there is a magic which evokes deep response and enables the reader to suffer his fellow feeling. The author has a singular skill to transform experience into words and words into experience, as well as the discipline to cease before emotion overwhelms or is exhausted."