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The Light Before Dawn
by Drum Hadley
ISBN 978-0-925904-97-3
Poetry
96 pages
$16
2011

The Light Before Dawn

Review:

A poet’s style is closer to being like a “voice” than any other writer’s. And
Drum’s voice is stripped to the bare essentials, and mercifully so, since his
subject matter lends itself to a minimalist approach. To paraphrase Pound, “a
poem should be written at least as well as a short story.” And in Drum’s case,
as with all great American poets, that means cutting the superfluous to get not
just to the point, but the heart of the matter. Coming so soon after his magnum
caliber reminiscences of a venturesome lifetime, Voice of the Borderlands, these
intimate new works are surprising reminders of what this 21st century transcendentalist
can do when he turns his mind inwards.
Drum’s is a uniquely American poetic voice — as developed by Whitman,
perfected by Emily Dickinson — and taught to Drum by his mentor, Charles
Olson, his friends and fellow pranksters, Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder. So
it’s good to “read” Drum’s voice again — as he channels the great metaphysical
like some back country Zen riddler. The key is that voice comes from the
breath, the heart, the sentiment is unvarnished and unlimited by metrical constraints.
That’s Olson’s heave of the trochee — blank English verse going back
to Shakespeare — verse as if spoken on a stage or around a campfire. Verse
meant to resonate a direct meaning when received. Not frenchified with iambic
pentameter or overly academic in its approach or content. Not tricky — at least
not overtly so.
In Borderlands, we have stories remembered as poems, picaresque vignettes and
campfire tales rendered in the original voices — as faithfully and fully as by
fellow cowman Will James. In Light Before Dawn, we have the koans of a mortality
faced as quietly and introspectively as Emily Dickinson. Hers: “I heard a fly
buzz when I died.” The fly outlived the protagonist. But the poem, as information,
is forever. Drum’s — “He knew who he was, And then he was gone.” The
poem is a declaration that he knew who he was — which is a rare feat for any
sentient being — and the poem, as information, is at the deepest level, immortal.
Nice trick for an old cowman, Drum.
— James Northrup

 


 

 


Drum Hadley is a poet and rancher who has lived most of his life in Southeastern Arizona. His cohorts in poetry have been Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, and Edward Dorn. It was Charles Olson who encouraged him to "get a job" and become a rancher. Hadley's Voice of the Borderlands was published in 2005 by Rio Nuevo Press, and compiles many years of work. The Light Before Dawn includes only work written in the last few years.

 

 

 

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