Crooked Run: Poems

L.E. Phillabaum Poetry Award

by Henry S. Taylor

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet moves back and forth over several centuries telling the stories of the rural corner of northern Virginia that used to be his home.

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Henry Taylor.

Henry S. Taylor is an American Poet and winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his book The Flying Change .

Taylor was raised as a Quaker in rural Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1965. He received his MFA from Hollins University (formerly Hollins College) in 1966, after which he taught literature and co-directed the MFA program in creative writing at American University from 1971-2003.

Reviews

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Taylor writes of his family and his own biography in close connection with the land and its geologic and human history. As some have noted, these poems certainly seem influenced by Frost and echo Wendell Berry. Sometimes the "blank verse" becomes a bit too prosy for me, but the emotion and subtle imagery is never prosaic.

"He came here, had his life, and as his last strength goes,
the little branch keeps washing over algae-laden stones."

How simply to tell the story of our mortality and of the near immortality of the flowing of the natural world around us.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way he explores his family's history and is so rooted in the place he comes from. Simple, magnificent language.

[Ted Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Taylor is a like a line of choice vintages that this reader wants to savor slowly. One small poem can be a universe or an afternoon of tiny but essential details. He is a master, or toured.