Greg Brownderville of Pumpkin Bend

I have tried to like poetry. It seems the literary, sophisticated thing to do.

But thus far, I haven't encountered much that I feel I can sit down and soak up, enraptured for any actual length of time.

Greg Brownderville, on the other hand, is one poet/folktale teller I have come to like. The young writer from the tiny Arkansas town of Pumpkin Bend -- it's in Woodruff County, I looked it up -- conveys life in the Delta with language so rich you can almost taste his words.

Two of my favorite lines come from separate parts of his poem, "Mystery":

"It's nice to know a passage of the world by heart."

And

"Everything that shatters, everything that scatters, everything that matters is a mystery."

I first fell in love with Greg...I mean Greg's poetry...when I heard him read some of his work at the yearly Arkansas Literary Festival soon after I'd moved here. I think all that's required to begin adoring a good writer is to hear him read his work aloud. Greg's velvety phrases are like verbal molasses, slowly dripping over you until you're enveloped by the sweet, Southern rhythms.

To whet your appetite, here's the poem with which he closes Deep Down in the Delta (The Doodlum Brothers Press, 2005):

Reasons

An utterly unlabored thought

That takes away the sting,

Like an unexpected crystal rock,

Polished by a spring;

The day that dawns when nights are swarming,

Like sun on the blade of a knife;

Your breathing in my bed this morning:

Reasons men have clung to life.

GO FIND HIM. Most recently, he published an essay, "Squirrel Soul," in the August Little Rock Soiree.

http://www.inarkansas.com/19178/squirrel-soul

Kevin Brockmeier's words

I don't just love Kevin Brockmeier's work because he spins stories so recognizable to Little Rock residents, sometimes it's like we're reading about our own lives. There is a delicate rhythm to his words, and I can't get enough of his writing. If you ever get a chance to hear him do a reading, which he does often at events like the Arkansas Literary Festival, go. You'll never forget his soft voice as it wraps around you and brings each line to life. A good introduction to his work is The Brief History of the Dead. More info here: http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/brockmeier/

This month, he has a piece in Arkansas Life magazine, published by my alma mater, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "[July, Little Rock, 1983]" seems autobiographical, but I don't know for sure.

Here's a teaser:
"The air is so damp and sticky that everything you say seems to emerge in its own heavy syrup, like sap from a tree, each sentence falling splat against the pavement. As a rule, the weather in Little Rock has this effect on people until mid-September, when the first cool rains arrive and all the old conversations dissolve and wash away."

I just want to roll his metaphors over and over on my tongue and process them slowly in my mind.

The rest can be found here: http://www.arkansaslife.com/editions/digital/?page=44