Abraham Smith is the author of five poetry collections--Destruction of Man (Third Man Books, 2018); Ashagalomancy (Action Books, 2015); Only Jesus Could Icefish in Summer (Action Books, 2014); Hank (Action Books, 2010); and Whim Man Mammon (Action Books, 2007)--and one coauthored fiction collection, Tuskaloosa Kills (Spork Press, 2018). In 2015, he released Hick Poetics (Lost Roads Press), a co-edited anthology of contemporary rural American poetry and related essays. His creative work has been recognized with fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. He lives in Ogden, Utah, where he is Assistant Professor of English at Weber State University.
Works
WHY EAT WHY KILL
WHY EAT WHY KILL
how hunger boy
mercer must you
brain crane lay
over lap one
dream broom
person starved
down chaff
rain pencil
shaving ego
peck of
pimpled flesh
on fire
eat burnt crane
eat burnt crane
eat burnt crane
who your gods then
while you wait for the soup
bird to unshade yr life
in who the cleated teeth
of rain
in mist
in whom the fired
sibilant remnants
a passing
storm's little
unsuccessful denials
of fire
inside every song
another song
fruit teaches this
white sun flesh
the seed at the breast
thread wrestled button the
crane
burnt
eaten
can't stack a day's
strength a night's
rest at the unravel hotel
truly hungry fools
dream too but
not of confluences
not of gardenias
not of pedigrees
not the stony feats
of insomniac sentinels
mothered by
the killing maze
milk like junk wool
milk like gauze
milk like hesitancy
might as well
eat your own cane
god and crawl
Bibliography
- Tuskaloosa Kills, with Scott McWaters, Spork Press (Tuscon, AZ), 2018.
- Destruction of Man, Third Man Books (Nashville, TN), 2018.
- Ashagalomancy, Action Books (Notre Dame, IN), 2015.
- Only Jesus Could Icefish in Summer, Action Books (Notre Dame, IN), 2014
- Hank, Action Books (Notre Dame, IN), 2010.
- Whim Man Mammon, Action Books (Notre Dame, IN), 2007.
