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In the author photo for \u201cTime Will Tell,\u201d his newly collected poems, David Middleton greets readers with a pen in his left shirt pocket, which reminded me of his fellow poet, Wendell Berry of Kentucky.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen many pictures of Berry in which he, too, totes a pen above his heart, poised to record whatever he sees beyond his desk. For both of these poets, the work of words is a portable enterprise\u00a0\u2014 a calling in which inspiration is more likely to strike in a field or along a roadway than within the cloister of a writer\u2019s study.<\/p>\n
Middleton, a poet-in-residence emeritus at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux who\u2019s now in his 70s, also invites comparisons with Berry because they\u2019ve both been hailed as champions of the Southern Agrarian literary tradition. It\u2019s as much a sensibility as a philosophy, evident in poems deeply informed by earth and sky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
One notable example is \u201cThe Farmer\u2019s Almanac,\u201d a Middleton poem in which he muses on those old-fashioned farm and garden manuals that bloom from store shelves at this time of year. With their quaint etchings evoking an ancient past, the covers of these almanacs depict a pioneer culture in which land promised not only practical wealth, but emotional and spiritual sustenance, too.<\/p>\n