Kathryn Stripling Byer
Kathryn Stripling Byer Poems
This, he said, giving the hickory leaf
to me. Because I am poor.
And he lifted my hand to his lips,
kissed the fingers that might have worn
...
I hoe thawed ground
with a vengeance. Winter has left
my house empty of dried beans
and meat. I am hungry
...
Without hands
a woman would stand at her mirror
looking back only,
not touching, for how could she?
...
Up here in the mountains
we know what extinct means. We've seen
how our breath on a bitter night
...
I don't know. I still can't get it right,
the way those dirt roads cut across the flats
and led to shacks where hounds and muddy shoats
skulked roundabouts. Describing it sounds trite
...
Kathryn Stripling Byer Biography
Kathryn Stripling Byer is the author of six books of poetry, including Descent (LSU Press, 2012) and Southern Fictions (Jacar Press, 2011). She has served as North Carolina's poet laureate.)
The Best Poem Of Kathryn Stripling Byer
Diamonds
This, he said, giving the hickory leaf
to me. Because I am poor.
And he lifted my hand to his lips,
kissed the fingers that might have worn
gold rings if he had inherited
bottomland, not this
impossible rock where the eagles soared
after the long rains were over. He stood
in the wet grass, his open hands empty,
his pockets turned inside out.
Queen of the Meadow, he teased me
and bowed like a gentleman.
I licked the diamonds off the green
tongue of the leaf, wanting only
that he fill his hands with my hair.
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