Philip Carter’s South by North is an autobiographical odyssey, a book-length narrative executed via a series of exquisitely wrought lyrics. Many of these lyrics could literally be set to music.
Carter adopts the persona of a Southern, folksy troubadour. Despite the humor, the self-deprecation, the irony of this persona, the poems of South by North are serious forays into nostalgia, self-examination, the nature of love, assessment of a life well-lived and inklings of mortality.
I rarely describe a poet’s work as “beautiful,” unless it applies, yet quite a few poems in this
volume deserve that appellation—“Schenectady” and “Mother; Love” for instance. I might also add “Midnight Near Monkey Hill,” which evokes Housman or Yeats yearning for youth
and the usual, innocent ardor it ensures. —Dr. Louis Gallo
Dr. Louis Gallo is Professor of English at Radford University & author of poetry volumes “Archaeology”, “Scherzo Furiant”, “Clearing the Attic”, “Crash” and the forthcoming volume “Leeway & Advent."
