Description
Book SynopsisThe poems in
Produce Wagon explore the vast and varied circumstances of the human experience. Roy Scheele delves into his love for his wife in “Remembrances,” the opening poem from his first chapbook, and “Driving after Dark”; his fascination with the natural world in poems such as “How the Fox Got Away” and “Late Autumn Woods”; his appreciation of his family in “A Kitchen Memory” and “The Long Rise”; and his fondness for stories in “The Carny Circuit” and “In the Clear.” In these and the other poems in the collection, Scheele uses a variety of traditional verse forms as well as free verse and syllabics, carefully fitting the form of each poem to his subject matter.
Though most of the poems are set in Nebraska and neighboring states, there is a universality to the subjects Scheele addresses. In these poems anywhere is everywhere.
Trade Review“In the best of poetry—unmistakably present and resonant to the reader—we find the physical embodiment of wordcraft: sound, rhythm, music. What Roy Scheele creates on the page is poetry’s equivalent to the enlightenment of the senses.”—Matt Sutherland,
Foreword Reviews“What is wonderful about a ‘produce wagon’ is its approachability, where we may select this fruit, that melon, to sample—and it’s all so good; otherwise, the produce would never have made it to the wagon. Roy Scheele’s
Produce Wagon is like that. Every poem is delicious.”—Mark Sanders,
Western American Literature"
Produce Wagon made me smile poem after poem and will bring up wonderful memories of family and love."—karla k. Morton,
Roundup Magazine“Roy Scheele is a poet of deep observation and patient discernment. Exquisite in prosody and immaculate in precision, each poem is a hall of mirrors where memory and desire refract off the sharp edges of the observable world.”—Nina Murray, author of
Alcestis in the Underworld“A lifetime’s collection of small and precious things: the pinpoints of the senses, the topography of the soul, these myriad wonders of eloquent plainsong—Roy Scheele’s incomparable, revelatory landscapes of acuity and affection.”—Stephen Behrendt, author of
Refractions and other collections
“Ted Kooser’s observation has it right: this gorgeous book is first and always music, but enriched by unforgettable imagery, compelling narrative, and ekphrasis. Scheele creates Nebraska—that former sea now prairie—as the setting of the poet’s life, here hauntingly worded, inhabited, and enlivened by intimate memory.”—Rhina P. Espaillat, author of
And After AllTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction by Ted Kooser
From Accompanied, 1974 Remembrances
The Welcome Mat
Flowering Crab
At Brim on the Little Blue
Rock Openings
A Metaphor for the Evening Star
The Gap in the Cedar
From Noticing, 1979 Noticing
A Kitchen Memory
Fishing Blue Creek
Poppies
August
Missing You
What Swept by on a Winter Morning
How the Fox Got Away
From The Sea-Ocean, 1981 The Sea-Ocean
Spring Greens
Nebraska U.S. 20
The Falls
Focal Point
A Turn in the Weather
Winter Onions
Remembering Anna
Grandpa Mac
From Pointing Out the Sky, 1985 Making Change
Saturday Mornings in the Radio Years
The Catch
The Farm in Arkansas
Uncle Lou
Sandhill Cranes
Crossing the Field
At the Drought’s Height
Cisterns
Re-Creation
A Walk Round the Monastery Farm
Changing the Flowers
A Reverence
Hoping for Raspberries
Stairway
Ansel Adams:
Aspens, New Mexico, 1958 Lichens
A Look Around
Mid-August in the Mountains
Lightning Bugs
Floating on My Back in the Late Afternoon
From The Voice We Call Human, 1991 Next Morning
A Hot Afternoon with Nothing to Do
Clare’s Last Poem
Antique Wrenhouse
Salt Valley Grange
Snowfence in Late April
Vietnam Memorial
Pallbearing
Heron Feeding in Rain
Reins
From To See How It Tallies, 1995 Driving after Dark
Lilac Storm
Ritual
Strayed
Witness
In Minnesota
Passage
Reflection
To See How It Tallies
Vigil
From Short Suite, 1997 Winter Cloud Cover
Diviner
Ripeness Is All, Is All
October Retort
Crowbar
Deep Autumn
First Bite
The Hunter, Home
From From the Ground Up, 2000 At Summer’s Height, in Hungary
January Primrose
First Sighting
Reckoning
Back through California
Planting a Dogwood
Tent Light
From the Ground Up
Black
Form
From A Far Allegiance, 2010 Gong
Fishheads
X-Ray Fitting
The Squarefold
A Day at the Dentist’s
Produce Wagon
In the Near Distance
Horse Creek Road
Certificate
The Carny Circuit
Across the Sandhills
A Freshening
Woman Feeding Chickens
Upriver
Laid Down at Mesa Verde
West of Vegas
Under Magnification
The Water Meadows, Winchester
Near Dorchester, in Dorset, from the Train
O’Keeffe’s
Barn with SnowFrom The Sledders, 2016 Simple Gesture
Discovering Gravity
The Sledders
In Possession
Toward Evening
Therefore
Laughter
Similitude
For Instance
Watching You Open Your New, Many-Hued Umbrella
The Earth Coming Green Again: Uncollected Poems The Earth Coming Green Again
A Counterpoise
The Sparrow’s Way
Dakota Burial
Househunting
In Blowing Snow
The Hadderways
Late Autumn Woods
Noodler
After Things
Dancer
Cover of Darkness
New Poems Wright Morris:
Clothing on Hooks, The Home Place Dale Nichols:
Morning Chore Lunching with Friends
Salon Noir, Niaux
In the Clear
Climbing Rose
Fern
The Long Rise
Flat Water
Four Observations
The Sign Said
Grounders
Seventh-Grade Art
Remember Me
Kingfisher
Lowbush Clusters
At the Station
