20
2017
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
BY ROBERT MORGAN
The black cat in the snow soaks up the winter sun with its thick fur and moves again, again, to stay in the best light in this sub-zero cold, its coat a multiplier of elusive heat in air that has few calories, its fur a solar sponge. This hairy feline’s like a scruffy artist or philosopher who draws a sustenance from air, through contemplation and extended stillness to make the most of less, to amplify what warmth and inspiration can be salvaged from afar, the meager drooping sun, by shifting with the hour, before the dark returns.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Resourceful
Sunburst (cast iron, 14x11x11) by Hanna Jubran
ROBERT MORGAN was born in Hendersonville, NC, and is now living in Ithaca, NY. He is the Kappa Alpha Professor of English at Cornell University. His numerous honors include the North Carolina Award for Literature, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association’s R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award for significant contribution to North Carolina literature, and induction into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Morgan has been featured regularly in NCLR, including interviews with him in the 2001 and 2014 print issues and an essay about his work in NCLR 2010. Read more about him in the interview that precedes these poems in this issue.