Bloodroot showcases poetry from the collected works of Jasper, Indiana, native Norbert Krapf. Spanning 35 years, these poems focus on Krapf's experiences living in southern Indiana and the intersection of his life with his German ancestry. Forty of the poems are published here for the first time.
Photographs by David Pierini, inspired by Krapf's work with many taken in and around Dubois County, grace this evocative portrait of a poet and place.
Anyone who doubts that poetry can reveal the history of a person or a place should read the collected poems of Indiana poet laureate Norbert Krapf. March 2009
* Indiana Magazine of History *Krapf's poems are sensually rich and wildly accessible. . . . This is a collection to be savored.February 1, 2009
-- Michael Zimmerman * Indianapolis Star *A new poetic voice has risen out of the hills and woods of southern Indiana, Hoosier poet laureate Norbert Krapf. . . . What one has been endowed with is a major part of what one has to endow the future. Out of this endowment Krapf has given us a great legacy.
-- John D. Groppe * Valparaiso Poetry Review *Krapf's poems are a conglomeration of wildlife, people, plants, nature, and land, with vivid imagery allowing the reader to practically smell the flowers, walk with bare feet through the grass, and feel the wind on their cheek.March/April 2009
* Northern Indiana Lakes Magazine *Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf was Professor of English at Long Island University from 1970 47to 2004. His books include The Country I Come From: Poems and Invisible Presence: A Walk through Indiana in Photographs and Poems, a collaboration with photographer Darryl Jones (IUP 2006). He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
David Pierini is a staff photographer for The Herald newspaper in Jasper, Indiana. He was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2003 and 2006 by the Indiana News Photographers Association. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
CONTENTS: Poems List
I. Somewhere in Southern Indiana (1993)
The Forefather Arrives
Entering the Southern Indiana Wilderness
Butchering
Cutting Wood
The Woods of Southern Indiana
Indigo Bunting
Chamomile
Purple Trillium
Tulip Poplar
Walnut
Skinning a Rabbit
Darkness Comes to the Woods
Southern Indiana
St. Meinrad Archabbey
To Obscure men
Two Bricks and a Board
My Father Young Again
A Terre Haute Story
Hoosier Songs
Sisters
A Civil War Veteran from Indiana
Flight
For an Old Friend
Basketball Season Begins
Somewhere in Southern Indiana
II. Bittersweet Along the Expressway (2000)
Arriving on Paumanok
Sycamore on Main Street
Ancestral Voices
Weeping Willow
Dogwood
Gatsby Country
The Roslyn Forge
Song of the Music Stand
A Midwestern Story
A Dream of Plum Blossoms
III. The Country I Come From (2002)
A Whiff of Fresh Sheets
Full Circle
The Language of Place
The Language of Species
What We Lost in Southern Indiana
The Buffalo Trace
What the Miami Call Themselves
Song of the Mississinewa
Mississinewa River Lament
Mississinewa Cottonwood Leaf
Lines Heard in Northern Indiana Cornfields
Mayapple
Fire and Ice
One Voice from Many
Pastoral Poetics
The Corn Cave
Hauling Hay
Hayloft
Milk Music
The Labor Day Boxes
The Horseradish Man
When the House Was New
Woods Hymn
Bloodroot
His Only Hickory Sapling
The Martin Box
The Potato Barrows
Gathering Hickory Nuts
The Quilters
Saturday Night at the Calumet
Because I Could Not Stop
Song for Bob Dylan
Odysseus in Indiana
Return to a Mighty Fortress
Song for a Sister
The Dropped Pigskin
Dream of a Hanging Curve
Dorothy and the Jewish Coat
The Mandolin and the Tenor
Let Morning Light
Hugging the Spirit
Farewell Lullaby
At Least Now
The Reunion
Places
IV. Looking for God's Country (2005)
Letter from a Star Above Southern Indiana
The Nest
Strawberry-Patch Song
The Gardener
Chicken in the Woods
Godfather's Fishing Knife
Patoka River Canoe Trip
Barnyard Hoops
The Schneebrunzer
What the Map Says
God's Country
The Storyteller
Where Trees Are Tall
The Piankashaw in the Sycamore
Coming into the Valley
Dark and Deep
Moon Shadow
The Time Has Come
V. Invisible Presence (2006)
Gate
The Language of Red
Corn Blowing in the Wind
The Blue Road
The Space Between
Bovine Beauty
Corn Syllables
Cut Earth
Morel
Cabin
Whitman's Web
Deaton's Woods
Woods Meditation
David Ignatow's Trees
Bare Tree Song
Tale of the Red Barn
Two Kittens
Midwestern Scene
A Red Barn for the Joads
What's in Wood?
I Remember When
Close Look
Flower Interior
Rilke's Shadow
Army of Orange
Left in a House
What If Fish?
For Whom the Bell?
Picket Fence
Rest
Walking the Streets
Windows
The Court House Bench
The Man in the Red Cap
Neighborhood Muse
Hoosier Poetry Reading
Song of the Red Covered Bridge
VI. Local News: Poems 2005-2007
Sister Soap
Clothesline Saga
Charlie
Little Red Worms from Tennessee
Dolls and Guns
The Local News
Two Bottles of Beer
Cemetery Wind
The Egg in My Hand
Lindauer's Woods
Father, Teach Me
Old Henry
Wilson's Drugstore
Rockroading
The Rustic Tavern
Sister Query
Fishing Again After Many Years
Patoka River Carp
The Blueberry Bush
Call of the Quail
The Rosary
Silent Prayer
Eighth Anniversary
Brother, Brother
Indiana Sycamore
Patoka Lake Morning
Woods Chapel
Palm Light
Bend in the Road
In Transit
Prayer for Peyton Manning
Fiddler
I'm Practically with the Band
What Have You Gone and Done?
On the Road with the Hampton Sisters
Etheridge Knight's Blues
Etheridge Knight at the Chatterbox
Song Out of Darkness for Jake Hale
For Kurt Vonnegut, Pilgrim Unstuck in Time
Spring Waters