News of the World and The Company of Horses by Peter Fallon

Poetry lovers all over Central Texas look forward to the annual Beall Poetry Festival at Baylor University -- a really special treat. Some of the foremost poets in America attend every year for readings, lectures, and panel discussions. This year’s class included Peter Fallon, the well-known Irish poet, C.D. Wright, David Lehman, and Donald Hall.

The festival always presents a great opportunity for signed editions, which I took full advantage of this year. Peter Fallon’s work is my favorite so far, and I am looking forward to readings by Donald Hall on Saturday, March 28th.

These two slim volumes contain some of the sparest, most compact poetry I have read in a long while. Many of the poems deal with nature – Fallon spent many years as a shepherd – while some others describe some ordinary events and observations. For example, “Gravities” from “News”:

“A ewe moves northward
to a gate, her lambs in tow.
Another follows and again
the night’s migration

is begun. Thin lines of sheep
approach a slope, the frantic calls
resume, the mothers’ for lambs,
the lambs’ for milk.

And I’ve known men
tell weather by this moment. (31)

From The Company of Horses, a brief elegy for Michael Hartnett (1941-1999):

End of sureness
end of doubt –

when the darkness
like a light
went out. (50)

We have already gone onto Amazon and his website to add to our collection. These neat, sweet, and petite collections belong in every poetry lover’s library. 5 stars

--Chiron, 3/28/09