Distributed for Tupelo Press
The Last Milkweed
Autumn is the inspiration behind this anthology, but not necessarily the destination. The destination is the discovery of the human condition, the discovery of the ways in which we respond to the natural world.
In this extraordinary anthology, forty-seven contemporary poets and one photographer respond to the myriad ways in which what we think and feel about the “autumnal” resonates through our lives and senses: spiritually, physically, and philosophically. Contributing poets were asked “to let their language rub up against any part or parts of the autumnal world that calls to them, whether from the outside in or the inside out.” In other words, these autumn poems and photographs need not so much as mention fallen leaves, milkweed, or even “autumn.” Autumn is the inspiration, but not necessarily the destination. The destination is as ever, the discovery of the human condition, the discovery of the ways in which we respond to the natural world.
The poems included in this anthology have all been written fresh in response to the autumnal prompt, with new work from luminaries such as Elise Paschen, Martha Ronk, G.C. Waldrep, Michael Chitwood, Gillian Cummings, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Rick Hilles, Eva Hooker, Luisa A. Igloria, and William Orem.
The photographs are by Jeffrey Levine, who, in addition to being executive director of Tupelo Press, is widely recognized for his work behind the camera. These images boast exceptional composition and color, but beyond technique, each photo offers up a penetrating resonance on the theme of autumn and the autumnal.
In this extraordinary anthology, forty-seven contemporary poets and one photographer respond to the myriad ways in which what we think and feel about the “autumnal” resonates through our lives and senses: spiritually, physically, and philosophically. Contributing poets were asked “to let their language rub up against any part or parts of the autumnal world that calls to them, whether from the outside in or the inside out.” In other words, these autumn poems and photographs need not so much as mention fallen leaves, milkweed, or even “autumn.” Autumn is the inspiration, but not necessarily the destination. The destination is as ever, the discovery of the human condition, the discovery of the ways in which we respond to the natural world.
The poems included in this anthology have all been written fresh in response to the autumnal prompt, with new work from luminaries such as Elise Paschen, Martha Ronk, G.C. Waldrep, Michael Chitwood, Gillian Cummings, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Rick Hilles, Eva Hooker, Luisa A. Igloria, and William Orem.
The photographs are by Jeffrey Levine, who, in addition to being executive director of Tupelo Press, is widely recognized for his work behind the camera. These images boast exceptional composition and color, but beyond technique, each photo offers up a penetrating resonance on the theme of autumn and the autumnal.
Table of Contents
Rose Auslander
As the weather turns
Pack your old summers in boxes
Cynthia Bargar
Atonement after Sunset at Ponyhenge
William Barnes
the art of collage
Brenda Beardsley
Troglodyte
Christopher Buckley
Agnostic
Apostasy
Michael Chitwood
Falling Leaves Catching in Fallen Leaves
Gillian Cummings
As Sleep Comes
Jon Davis
Wallace Stevens in the Blackfoot River Valley
Glenndale (Mark) DeFoe Jr.
Song of Winter Snow
Maija Rhee Devine
Autumn, You Suck
Autumn’s Wet, Black Diaper
Autumn
Mackenzie Schubert Polonyi Donnelly
Estefelé / Toward Evening
Dear Aceso
Rebecca A. Durham
Wood Parade
Karen Earle
[dew-starred]
Kristina Erny
Shuttle
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
From Room to Room
Lisa Furmanski
primer of prairie portent
Deborah Gorlin
Aging in Place
Jenny Grassl
Earth Sings Greensleeves to Mankind
Bonney Hartley
Ordaining the Ordinary
Rosemary Herbert
In Elsie’s Garden
Rick Hilles
Prayer for This Morning
Eva Hooker
Like the Wild Thyme, Unseen
Dry Salvages
Luisa A. Igloria
The Myth of Distance
Didi Jackson
Open
John James
The Field Which Had Been a Meadow Once
s. d. lishan
October 23
Katherine Cota MacDonald
Sundust
Sarah Maclay
Swansong ~ Autumn Aubade
Marjorie Maddox
Midlife Mowing
Libby Maxey
The New Actaeon
Susan McCabe
Ovid During Lockdown
Ovid Speaks to Bark, in these Times of Our Sickness
James McCorkle
Red Knot
Dawn McGuire
Equinoctial
Becka Mara McKay
The Judgment of the Open Pit (Exodus 21:23)
Alicia Rebecca Myers
Loss
William Orem
The Festal Letters
Preeti Parikh
The [ ] of Form
Elise Paschen
Sumac in Pawhuska
Veronica Patterson
Autumn Is a Honey Locust Tree
Martha Ronk
Queen Anne’s Lace
October Weed
Steven Salmoni
Landscape, with Changing Weather
Mara Adamitz Scrupe
Lawrence Campground Windfall Orchard
Annette Sisson
At sixteen, instead of practicing piano
Arthur Solway
Mid-Autumn Diary
L. Stuart
Autumn Understory
Natalie Taylor
Shouldering into rest
G. C. Waldrep
Autumn Celebrant
Resting Crown
Milkweed Remnant, Colton Point Road
Calleja Smiley Welsh
The tree and I have nothing
Laura Budofsky Wisniewski
Math Sonnet #1
When the Leaves Have Fallen, the Zen Master Stops Eating
As the weather turns
Pack your old summers in boxes
Cynthia Bargar
Atonement after Sunset at Ponyhenge
William Barnes
the art of collage
Brenda Beardsley
Troglodyte
Christopher Buckley
Agnostic
Apostasy
Michael Chitwood
Falling Leaves Catching in Fallen Leaves
Gillian Cummings
As Sleep Comes
Jon Davis
Wallace Stevens in the Blackfoot River Valley
Glenndale (Mark) DeFoe Jr.
Song of Winter Snow
Maija Rhee Devine
Autumn, You Suck
Autumn’s Wet, Black Diaper
Autumn
Mackenzie Schubert Polonyi Donnelly
Estefelé / Toward Evening
Dear Aceso
Rebecca A. Durham
Wood Parade
Karen Earle
[dew-starred]
Kristina Erny
Shuttle
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
From Room to Room
Lisa Furmanski
primer of prairie portent
Deborah Gorlin
Aging in Place
Jenny Grassl
Earth Sings Greensleeves to Mankind
Bonney Hartley
Ordaining the Ordinary
Rosemary Herbert
In Elsie’s Garden
Rick Hilles
Prayer for This Morning
Eva Hooker
Like the Wild Thyme, Unseen
Dry Salvages
Luisa A. Igloria
The Myth of Distance
Didi Jackson
Open
John James
The Field Which Had Been a Meadow Once
s. d. lishan
October 23
Katherine Cota MacDonald
Sundust
Sarah Maclay
Swansong ~ Autumn Aubade
Marjorie Maddox
Midlife Mowing
Libby Maxey
The New Actaeon
Susan McCabe
Ovid During Lockdown
Ovid Speaks to Bark, in these Times of Our Sickness
James McCorkle
Red Knot
Dawn McGuire
Equinoctial
Becka Mara McKay
The Judgment of the Open Pit (Exodus 21:23)
Alicia Rebecca Myers
Loss
William Orem
The Festal Letters
Preeti Parikh
The [ ] of Form
Elise Paschen
Sumac in Pawhuska
Veronica Patterson
Autumn Is a Honey Locust Tree
Martha Ronk
Queen Anne’s Lace
October Weed
Steven Salmoni
Landscape, with Changing Weather
Mara Adamitz Scrupe
Lawrence Campground Windfall Orchard
Annette Sisson
At sixteen, instead of practicing piano
Arthur Solway
Mid-Autumn Diary
L. Stuart
Autumn Understory
Natalie Taylor
Shouldering into rest
G. C. Waldrep
Autumn Celebrant
Resting Crown
Milkweed Remnant, Colton Point Road
Calleja Smiley Welsh
The tree and I have nothing
Laura Budofsky Wisniewski
Math Sonnet #1
When the Leaves Have Fallen, the Zen Master Stops Eating