68
2013
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
number 22
A Warm Absence, 2006 (acrylic, 24x24) by Herb Jackson
Unseen by Fred Chappell
At six o’clock you may look out and say, “We would be going for our evening stroll,” Recalling the route you took across the hill And the corner where you always turned one way And not the other every single day Because that clearly was your partner’s will Who owned the closer knowledge of any trail, The better record in matter of going astray. And after a moment of sorrow you may decide To walk the journey alone, yet not alone, For you shall feel a presence at your side, Not quite your old companion but another one, Unseeable in the gathering dark, yet very near, Who will go with you long after stars appear.
Among his numerous honors and awards, Fred Chappell, North Carolina Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2002, has received the North Carolina Award for Literature in 1980 and was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 2006. He is the author of seventeen poetry collections, most recently, Shadow Box (Louisiana State University Press, 2009; reviewed in NCLR 2010). His poetry is also the subject of an essay by George Hovis in NCLR 2011. Read a new series of poetry and prose by Fred Chappell in the NCLR 2013 print issue, forthcoming this summer.