Ghost Lighthouse

by Chris Waters

Chris Waters' Ghost New and Selected Hatteras Poems takes us on journeys both familiar and strange, all of them rendered in language that pulsates with the land itself and the creatures that live upon it, including the human. "Blue Shell Crab," for example, shows Waters' way with words, how they come alive in their mystery to reveal the life span of the she-crab that, two months after being courted by the "randy jimmy," lets loose her two million larvae and "swims toward the open sea to die." On the other hand, what could be more familiar to landlubbers than long-distance driving with the car radio "From nonstop hymns and sermons, there's/the blessing of weather channels." ("Summer's End, on the Drive Back North") Waters knows the landscape of both habitation and migration, and his love for Hatteras and its sojourners shines through these poems. As he remarks, "Islanders really should look gently upon each other. We all should look gently upon each other." Kathryn Stripling Byer Former North Carolina Poet Laureate

156 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2010