Bucolics - Hardcover

Untitled and unpunctuated, the seventy poems in this collection seem to cascade from one page to another. Maurice Manning extolls the virtues of nature and its many gifts, and finds deep gratitude for the mysterious hand that created it all.
that bare branch that branch made black
by the rain the silver raindrop
hanging from the black branch
Boss I like that black branch
I like that shiny raindrop Boss
tell me if I’m wrong but it makes
me think you’re looking right
at me now isn’t that a lark for me
to think you look that way
upside down like a tree frog
Boss I’m not surprised at all
I wouldn’t doubt it for
a minute you’re always up
to something I’ll say one thing
you’re all right all right you are
even when you’re hanging Boss

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BUCOLICS "In these marvelous addresses to the Almighty, Maurice Manning reminds us of our agrarian roots and that our best metaphors for the ineffable all spring from the soil. These psalms, powerful and hectoring, tautological and unique, are reminiscent of King David's. They are spellbinding." --Mark Jarman, author of To the Green Man PRAISE FOR THE POETRY OF MAURICE MANNING:

"A fresh and brilliant talent."?W. S. MERWIN "A Companion for Owls conjures the historical D. Boone, Long Hunter, with astonishing intimacy and convincingness, while at the same time using him to stage profoundly nonhistorical scenes. The lucidity and surprise and soulfulness of their language embody an intelligence and sensibility attainable only in high art. Several times I have had to put Owl down with a shudder, and reload. This is thrilling work." -- James Baker Hall, poet laureate of Kentucky