Field Talk

by Frank Stanford

Genres: Poetry

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Frank Stanford was a prolific American poet. He is most known for his epic, The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You— a labyrinthine poem without stanzas or punctuation. In addition, Stanford published six shorter books of poetry throughout his 20s, and three posthumous collections of his writings (as well as a book of selected poems) have also been published.

Just shy of his 30th birthday, Stanford died on June 3, 1978 in his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the victim of three self-inflicted pistol wounds to the heart. In the three decades since, he has become a cult figure in American letters.

Reviews

[Ray Nessly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baby one night somebody
Going to strike a match on a tombstone
And read your name.


Arkansas poet, Frank Stanford, dubbed the “swamp rat Rimbaud.”
A cool handle, that. Though someone said he didn’t hang out in swamps much, per se. Woods, yes, farms, yes. Arkansas everywhere else, yes.

Dead at 29 from three (3) self-inflicted gunshots to the heart.
“Three?!”
Yes. It was “just” a .22.
That’s why, I’d like to suppose, on the eighth day God made shotguns.

……..
NAUTILUS

a body comes apart in the bayou
like cardboard
in the lid of a jar
some kind of oyster
you take out with a knife
dogs tell it
the whole night sky
is an appaloosa

…..
Selected excerpts:

one kiss was all
it took
one kiss cold as silver dollars
holding down the eyelids
like two carpenter’s measures
steady as fish

………

I came up on death and love
hung up like dogs in my garden

……..

Chopin and back roads
and her granddaughter was just like him
silent and cruel
always taking her beauty rest
and her best friend’s friends

…..

pain my star
of all times I remember
none of them
now I do
I notice the points
of light the shoes
the ballerina wore
through years ago

……….

half under water there’s a chimney
driftwood and broken oars and lost lures
floating in the flue
the current drawing them up the fireplace like smoke
there it stands alone like a stone tree
the house having burned
before the river rose

[Nathaniel Klaung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Field Talk is a book concious of it's transition. What may feel like awkward associations a with looser binding tightens up toward the end. With two amazing drawings by Ginny Stanford, this book intentionally up pays homage to who the South truly belongs to: those impoverished and have been one with the land for centuries. In Field Talk Stanford expresses gratitude, and signals that he will carry it with him.