A Legacy of Shadows: Selected Poems

By David Lee and David Lee

Book Overview

Bobby Joe

if i should die before I wake...

I don't know if I believed in ghosts
before Bobby Joe Lee had his stroke

that big man we called Bull lying there
all them years in that hospital room

wasn't nothing they could do
but wait and see

if he'd try to wake up or let it go
he was like a lightning-struck tree

didn't even know it was gone
alone in there, blind and lost

until the next firestorm come
to finish him off

The PBS-TV documentary on David Lee was entitled "The Pig Poet," and according to The Denver Post that sobriquet didn't bother Utah's poet Laureate: "I've rarely in my life been without a pig." Pigs, and the gentle-hearted redneck roustabout John, feature prominently in Lee's narratives and are integral to what he calls his "aural agrarian saga." This saga, written over the past two decades, is also populated with some of the most authentically drawn characters since those of Mark Twain. Lee's small-town universe is frequented by tragedy and near-tragedy, and transcendence most often arrives in the form of salvaged humor, whether ironic, self-depricating, or ribald.

"David Lee's pig poems are the best thing to happen to animals in poetry since Kit Smart's cat.'-Thomas McGrath

"Lee's calculatedly simple narratives are wonderfully wrought. His is a welcome voice, neither academic nor urban."-Booklist

Also available by David Lee

David Lee: A Listener's Guide Reading from: A Legacy of Shadows and News from Down to the Caf eacute;Audio CD $12.00, 1-55659-137-3.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556590970
• ISBN13: 9781556590979
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Legacy of Shadows, A legacy of Work

For anyone interested in reading as close to the the complete collection Dave Lee's narrative voice as one can get, describing small town life, Legacy of Shadows is a must read. Collected from Lee's previous major works, Legacy of Shadows begins with The Porcine Legacy and ends with selections from My Town, winner of the Western States Book Award. In this one title, the reader will be able to see a complete picture of the unique and wonderful voice that David Lee brings to poetry. Published in conjunction with News Down to the Cafe: New Poems, Legacy of Shadows will stir the emotions of any reader.