“Wishing Stones”
“Driving Alone” was reprinted in Best of the Net 2014 (Sundress Publications, 2015), “Market Day” was reprinted in Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio (Ohio University Press, 2015), and “Dear One” was reprinted in Deep Waters (Outrider Press, 2012). “Nocturne” was reprinted in American Life in Poetry (2010).
Many thanks to the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund, the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, the American Literary Review, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the MacDowell Colony, and the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center for their generous support.
I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all my teachers and friends who made this book better. Thanks to James Cummins, Danielle Cadena Deulen, John Drury, Kathy Fagan, Andrew Hudgins, and Lia Purpura, all of whom lead by example. Thanks to Brian Brodeur, Heather Hamilton, S. Whitney Holmes, Dave Nielson, Natalie Shapero, and Maureen Traverse for their criticism and kindness. Thanks to Thomas Lux for selecting this book for the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize. Thanks to David Sanders and everyone at Ohio University Press. Thanks to Charles Chessler for the use of his photograph. Thanks to my family for their support. Lastly, thanks to Douglas Watson, whose unwavering belief sustains me. Thank you.
for Doug
My Dear One is mine as mirrors are lonely, As the poor and sad are real to the good king, And the high green hill sits always by the sea.
—W. H. Auden
Contents
Upon Giving My Grandmother’s Chair to My Brother
One
