Hidden Water: From the Frank Stanford Archives

Hidden Water: From the Frank Stanford Archives

"“The big event in poetry for 2015 will likely be the long-awaited resurrection of Frank Stanford, a legendary badass from Arkansas, much of whose poetry has been unavailable since his suicide at the age of 29 in 1978… Stanford was a hell of a metaphor-maker and simile-slinger, and could cast a spell of extreme intensity with a flick of his wrist.”—NPR.org "His love poems can sound like the cry of an angel falling backward through an open window, to borrow Dwight Yoakam’s line about Roy Orbison’s voice. . . . Mr. Stanford could lose his heart without blowing his cool.” —New York Times "It is astounding to me that I was not even aware of this accomplished and moving poet. There is a great deal of pain on the poems, but it is a pain that makes sense, a tragic pain whose meaning rises from the way the poems are so firmly molded and formed from within."—James Wright Hidden Water: From the Frank Stanford Archives  is 200 pages of unpublished poems, photographs, artwork, and facsimiles of  typesheets, handwrtten drafts, and letters. A preface is written by editor Michael Wiegers and an appreciation by Stanford's friend Steve Stern. The book also includes downloadable audio of special guests reading Stanford's poetry. Hidden Water complements Copper Canyon Press's definitive Frank Stanford collection What About This and is a must for any lover of Stanford. My wallet was thick as the bible I carried around Graphs of Elvis Presley John Lee Hooker Brigitte Bardot and the sodbuster Burns I thought up nom-de-plumes in the outhouse and sent off for things cryptic ads I used stamps that made the postmaster ask where I was from Born in 1948, Frank Stanford was a prolific poet known for his originality and ingenuity. He has been dubbed "a swamprat Rimbaud" by Lorenzo Thomas and "one of the great voices of death" by Franz Wright. He grew up in Mississippi, Tennessee, and then Arkansas, where he lived for most of his life and wrote many of his most powerful poems. Stanford died in 1978. He authored over ten books of poetry, including eight volumes in the last seven years of his life. Frank Stanford (1948-1978) was a prolific poet known for his originality and ingenuity. He has been dubbed “a swamprat Rimbaud” by Lorenzo Thomas and “one of the great voices of death” by Franz Wright. He grew up in Mississippi, Tennessee, and then Arkansas, where he lived for most of his life and wrote many of his most powerful poems. Steve Stern's novels and story collections include Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven, which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish fiction, and The Wedding Jester, which won the National Jewish Book Award. His stories have been included in the Pushcart and O.Henry Prize anthologies. Editor, translator and publisher, Michael Wiegers’s previous titles include This Art, The Poet’s Child, and Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry (co-edited with Monica de la Torre). He is poetry editor of Narrative Magazine, and serves as Executive Editor at Copper Canyon Press. I Slept Through It when I listen to the river my looking glass I am like Saint Blaise commanding the wolf to give up its prey I am like the watchboy they asked about the night my brother but I was dreaming so I know nothing of it all I saw were the stallions waiting for their riders the dead the dancers underground beside the waters I heard a dirge of hooves I touched the warm flanks of the trees so you see about things I know almost nothing I can’t even remember my dreams they are like the long songs the prisoners make to put me to sleep if I could tell you about my death I would but I slept through it The Moon I think it is a ship putting out without me A white horse that throws all riders And a swimmer who is naked who believes she is asleep It is a rooster molting dark feathers in the water Or a beekeeper who dreams someone has found her out in the garden A snake which sheds its skin in the riverbed at night And a schoolgirl weeping under a black patch I know it is only a stone everybody keeps a blind date with