Vigils: Selected Poems

by Jeff Daniel Marion

72 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

An award-winning writer, teacher, editor, and printer from Tennessee, Marion's poetry has been celebrated throughout the Appalachian region and beyond.

Reviews

[J. Wootton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this collection twice now, since picking it out of a bookstore clearance section years ago, both times enjoying it very much and twice deciding to keep it. Marion has a way of hallowing the vistas and people and rural realities of his vision, reminding me that glamour is only one type of magic, that the true spell is being able to see and reveal what's really there: how sacred the little moments, the small rhythms.

Marion clearly knew poetry inside and out, academically and technically, yet his art is beautifully unspoiled by that knowledge. His lines are organic, attentive, thoughtful, brimming. You don't have to look past the surface sheen; but if you do, there's a lot more to the world, the built and the natural, as well as to the poem.

There's a good chance I'll up my rating to 4 stars after next reading.