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Nancy Simpson's LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, New and Selected Poems was published by Carolina Wren Press (N.C. Laureate Series, 2010.) She is the author of ACROSS WATER and NIGHT STUDENT, State Street Press, still available on WWW at Alibris and Books Again. Her poems have been published in Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review and other literary magazines. "Carolina Bluebirds" was published in THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS, Anhinga Press). "Grass" was reprinted in the 50th Anniversary Issue of Southern Poetry Review: DON'T LEAVE HUNGRY ( U.of Arkansas Press.) Seven poems were reprinted in the textbook, SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN POETRY,(McFarland.) Two poems were published in SOLO CAFE, Two more poems were published in SOLO NOVO."In the Nantahala Gorge" was published in Pisgah Review. "Studying Winter" was reprinted in Pirene's Fountain Anthology and "The Collection" in Collecting Life Anthology. Most recently, Southern Poetry Review Edited by James Smith, published "Our Great Depression," and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII: NORTH CAROLINA,Edited by William Wright, reprinted "Leaving in the Dead of Winter."

Saturday, January 15, 2011

TWO POEMS BY NANCY SIMPSON from Living Above the Frost Line

Grief Loses Its Grip


First a crooked smile,  
a giggle, then there comes the urge
to utter words, I'm back. 
One laugh emits so strangely
it almost hurts, a horse laugh.
When was it I changed direction,
turned around?  Yesterday,
a serene smile and humming
as I drove to the store for bread,

The absence of sorrow feels best 
in winter on the first day of a new year.
Joy. The mundane dead.
A friend arrives with news. I learn
all I missed. We drive through the valley,
looking up, nearly ecstatic,
my laughter resounding in witness to
a violet splash, sunlight streaming
across purple mountains near home.


From the Top of the Mountain
   in memory of Barbara Simpson Askew

Against my will the Everglades burn.
Smoke blows through the portico
and heat filters in through the window screen.
That is the scene the day you started 
to die, Sister, and why I say no
to a road, a highway so humid 
and long, it took a lifetime to leave.

I tried comparing the sentimental 
and the real,  but I don't know
what happened. Proximity is my problem.
If we talked, sipping coffee, saying
what humidity is like, thick air, unmerciful heat,
maybe I could  remember more
Perspective comes from being high,

looking as far into blackness
as my eyes can see, so I rise,
years, miles, reduce the volume
of your wheezes,
erase the whole neighborhood
the day men spread shells on our sand road,
forget they covered every shell with tar.

I only want to remember the last time
you came to my house for a visit.
New Year's Eve. Our party lasted
until Monday, enough snow to cover the leaves.
You laughed at me, a flatlander come to live
on a mountain, how I moved up, teased me
in your girl voice asking, How high are we?

(These poems are reprinted from 
LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE
Selected and New Poems published 2010
 at Carolina Wren Press. This first book in the new
Laureate Series was chosen by Laureate
Kathryn Stripling Byer.

Order from publisher Carolina Wren Press

Order a copy at Malaprops Book Store in Asheville

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or Call The Book Nook in Blairsville, Georgia
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2 comments:

Joan Ellen Gage Admin said...

Ah, so you are a flat lander. I would not have guessed. You grace the room as if you were born there!

January 19, 2011 at 3:17 PM
Nancy Simpson said...

Hello Joan. I must have lived here in another life. I am at home here. I know nothing will make me a native, but I have lived in the mountains since the 60s.

January 19, 2011 at 6:24 PM

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