Natural Trouble

By Scott Hightower

Book Overview

Natural Trouble continues Scott Hightower's investigation begun in Tin Can Tourist . Themes of inheritance extend through changes of landscape and bad weather to hungers, urgencies, inequities, and bereavements. Hightower also reminds us that the practice of writing is at the core of democracy: poetry seeks a foundation in the truth of the individual, guaranteed and restored through the integrity of language.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823222861
• ISBN13: 9780823222865
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Length: 82 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A delicious collection ...

... to be savored. Hightower unveils a thick portal into that irrevocable condition of time, passing and escaping ... with our remnant notions of the things expired - both individual and universal - stitched back up again with the deftest needle and thread ... producing moments tactile, layered, and precise.

Intelligent, playful, and thought-provoking

Scott Hightower's second collection features poems on Ekphrastic subjects, Biblical and Greek mythology, and the personal - farms in Texas, nights in bed and breakfasts, dinners at home. His work is intelligent and layered, requiring more than one reading - good examples are his poems "Festival" and "Tacking," poems which use mythology as a backdrop for the poet's relationships and observations. I highly recommend this book.

A mastery to the modesty

With Hightower taking Copper Canyon's Hayden Carruth Prize, I decided to go back to his previous two books and I am glad I did. "Natural Trouble" is a rewarding read. Hightower has an eye for the modesty of the small family farm and can also write insightfully about art history and current events. "Tacking," a love poem toward the back of the book, was as surprising as it was arresting. He is sort of a modern Theocritus. The first three books make a lot of sense together. It will be interesting to see where this author goes next.

A Class Act...

Hightower really is one of the finest, most dependable poets around. These poems are clear, ambitious, and original. The first and last poems in this collection deal with Spain. He is a native of Texas. And then there are interesting poems about capital punishment to suicide bombers in between. Forget about the sloppy and trendy attention grabbers, Hightower is the real thing. His poems are classically smart and full of heart.