Language They Speak Is Things to Eat: Poems by Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets

North Carolina is well known for its fiction writers, but the state is also home to a number of first-rate poets. In the past few decades, these poets have produced memorable work and received numerous honors. A companion to the contemporary North Carolina fiction anthology The Rough Road Home (1992), this book provides a substantial sampling of the recent bounty in North Carolina poetry. Poet Michael McFee has chosen from eight to twenty poems by each of fifteen contemporary poets. There is a refreshing diversity in the voices, from James Applewhite's down east tobacco farmer to Gerald Barrax's passionate urban man to Kathryn Stripling Byer's isolated mountain woman. The humor ranges from Maya Angelous's serious wit to Jonathan Williams's verbal improvisations. And there is a healthy variety in form and tone, from A. R. Ammons's free verse ruminations to Fred Chappell's vigorous, witty narratives in traditional forms. But there is also a fundamental unity to these poets. They are all North Carolina writers, who were born in or have long lived in the state, and whose verbal consciousness has been shaped by the very nature of the place. Most important, they are all poets we can read with appreciation and great pleasure.