Jackson's Actions

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire. --Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) <

One of the loveliest women I know, it is thrilling to see that Susan Meyers' new book, already the winner of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize, is getting the acclaim it deserves:

"Keep and Give Away" has been selected for this year's SIBA Book Award for Poetry. This honor, presented by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, goes not only to Susan's book but to its publisher, the University of South Carolina Press, as well.

In addition, Susan's book has won the North Carolina Poetry Society's esteemed Brockman-Campbell prize for the best book of poetry by a NC poet in 2006.

Sample?


Keep and Give Away

What do I know of man's destiny?
I could tell you more about radishes.
--Samuel Becket

With a bushel basket in hand
he's the tally of my ripest desires,

more than the sum of his summer
crops, perfect and plentiful as they are--

ever counting Early Contenders
and Silver Queen, Burpless

cucumbers, Kentucky Wonders, too.
Throw in the fruit to sweeten

the numbers: blackberries and figs
piled in pyramids or weighed

in pecks. And don't forget
the peppers (red, yellow, green),

divided into keep and give away.
Dinner plates--heaped with leafiness

tubers, and pods--heavy
with the haul and roots of his labor.

Now he's shelling peas in his lap
and I sit across the room, listening

to the ping, ping. He's more
than the sum, I cannot count the ways,

and despite a constant reckoning
of work and luck, numbers fail me

in this long, hot growing season.

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CONGRATULATIONS, SUSAN. We are all so happy and proud for you.