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Blacksnake at the Family Reunion: Poems
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Blacksnake at the Family Reunion: Poems Paperback - 2012 - 1st Edition

by David Huddle

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Reader reviews for Blacksnake at the Family Reunion: Poems

From the publisher

David Huddle's latest collection, Blacksnake at the Family Reunion, shares intimate and amusing stories as if told by a quirky, usually reticent, great uncle. In "Boy Story," a teenage romantic meeting ends abruptly when the boy's sweetheart realizes they have parked near her grandmother's grave. The poem "Aloft" recalls a widowed mother's indignation after she receives a marriage proposal in a hot air balloon. Haunted by the words on his older sister's tombstone -- "born & died... then / a single date / in November" -- the speaker in one poem struggles to understand a tragic loss: "The ampersand / tells the whole truth / and nothing but, / so help me God, / whose divine shrug / is expressed so / eloquently / by that grave mark."
Blacksnake at the Family Reunion continues Huddle's poetic inquiry into the power of early childhood and family to infuse adulthood with sadness and despair -- an inquiry conducted with profound empathy for the fragility of humankind.

Details

  • Title Blacksnake at the Family Reunion: Poems
  • Author David Huddle
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 68
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher LSU Press
  • Publication date 2012-11-12
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated
  • ISBN 9780807144695 / 080714469X
  • Weight 0.22 lbs (0.10 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.52 x 5.58 x 0.17 in (21.64 x 14.17 x 0.43 cm)
  • Category Poetry
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2011050509
  • Dewey Decimal Code 811.54

About the author

A native of Ivanhoe, Virginia, David Huddle served in the U.S. Army in Germany and Vietnam and earned degrees from the University of Virginia, Hollins College, and Columbia University. Author of seventeen books of poetry, fiction, and essays, Huddle has taught at the University of Vermont, the Bread Loaf School of English, the Rainier Writing Workshop, and Hollins University.