James Hoggard: New and Selected Poems

As the Texas Poet Laureate of 2000, James Hoggard writes beautifully on themes of love, loss, and nature. His unique voice, visual imagery, and carefully crafted syntax take his audience on a journey from Texas to Paris, Taos to Rome, and into their own pasts.

Here’s a brief poem titled “Drought” based on his experiences in the stark West Texas landscape.

So go ahead and call this place
the place that gets no rain
because no rain falls here
though memories say rains have
been here – they’ve swept
through ditches, they’ve flooded lawns
and drowned roads
so we’ve had rains,
a lot of rains, and with rain
winds strong enough
to rip ceiling joists loose
and hurl barn roofs away.