Babylon in a Jar: New Poems

These diverse poems of past and present, of order and disorder, press on with the forceful explorations that Andrew Hudgins began with his first book, SAINTS AND STRANGERS, a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. The wide-ranging poems in this new volume respond with passion to the natural world, to family life, to history, to inheritance: "before he flooded the rubble, he swept up the dust of Babylon / to give as presents, and he stored it in a jar."

Andrew Hudgins was born in Texas, raised mainly in Alabama, and educated all across the Uninted States. Today, he teaches at the University of Cincinnati, where he lives with his wife, the novelist Erin McGraw.

1
The Chinaberry 3
After Muscling Through Sharp Greenery 5
Poem ("Blunt daffodil spikes") 6
Ashes ("My left hand joggled Johnny's arm") 7
In the Red Seats 10
Edge 12
Dragonfly 13
Night Class 15
One Threw a Dirt Clod and It Ran 17
Signs of Change in Weather 18
Wind 19
Supper 21
The Daffodils Erupt in Clumps 22
We Were Simply Talking 24
Heaven 25
Elegy for the Bees 27
Bodies of Water 28
Babylon in a Jar 31

2
Catching Breath 37
Plunge 38
How to Stop 40
Ashes ("Bill gripped the can in both hands") 42
In Alesia 43
Rain 44
Purple 46
Ball 49
These Priveleges Doth the Wolf Hold to This Hour 51
Hail 52
Goat God 53
Plant Two Seeds 55
Keys 56
Hammer and Scourge 58
When the Weak Lamb Dies 59
Tools: An Ode 60
The Bottle Tree 61
Why Stop? 64
The Hanging Gardens 65
Stump 69

Acknowledgments 71