{"id":3888,"date":"2020-03-10T12:16:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T12:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3mileharborpress.com\/?page_id=3888"},"modified":"2025-09-15T03:01:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T03:01:33","slug":"little-black-train-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.3mileharborpress.com\/?page_id=3888","title":{"rendered":"LITTLE BLACK TRAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WINNER OF THE THREE MILE HARBOR POETRY PRIZE: PRAISE FOR JORDAN SMITH\u2019S LITTLE BLACK TRAIN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/span>Old loves \u2013 especially music and art \u2013 once again kindle a poetry of beguiling eloquence and erudition for Jordan Smith and highlights of this collection include two memorable suites of poems: \u201cEight Hats,\u201d based on paintings by Walter Hatke, and \u201cSketches for a Novel,\u201d drawing on paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland. The pull of the past is strong for Smith and these poems are replete with references to touchstones of other eras \u2013 straw boaters, Wobblies, R.D. Laing, old time hymns, Monopoly games\u2026 but nostalgia is leavened by a new political urgency, the ecstasies and explicatives of today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a railroad lantern, Jordan Smith\u2019s poems light the region between the workings of chance and the routes that bind us to memory. Through the years and a brace of books, Smith has led readers into the presence of a great question: \u201cWho would have thought the broken might contrive such beauty?\u201d It is a beautiful question, one that issues as if from the instruments of old music. He inquires with such brilliant artistry, that each poem leads us to a further place, one we had not foreseen. As he puts it,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

what I wanted was a learned, an unearned grace<\/strong>
Where between word and world the difference was as slight<\/strong>
As a gesture not yet begun,a singer\u2019s voice in memory, praising<\/strong>
Artifice, as naturally as that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have often thought about the courtesy implicit of the best poets to invite us into imaginary rooms in our own minds. Smith takes us time and again, leaving us grateful for the true intelligence we find there. \u2013 David Rigsbee, author of Not Alone in My Dancing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan Smith is the author of seven books of poems, most recently Clare\u2019s Empire, a fantasia on the life and work of John Clare<\/em> from The Hydroelectric Press, and The Light in the Film<\/em> from the University of Tampa Press. The recipient of grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Ingram Merrill Foundation, he lives with his wife, Malie, in upstate New York, where he plays fiddle and is the Edward Everett Hale Jr., Professor of English at Union College.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry, pages 96<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publication Date: March 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN:978-0-9983406-4-7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trade paperback: 6 x 9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

$<\/span>16.00<\/bdi><\/span>Add to cart<\/a>\t\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUY HERE FROM AMAZON:<\/strong><\/span>
https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0998340642<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Ploughshares guest editor’s recommendation: David St. John recommends Little Black Train<\/em> by Jordan Smith (Three Mile Harbor Press, March 2020). \u201cWhenever friends tell me they\u2019ve lost faith in poetry or this county, I send them a book by Jordan Smith. Formally hewn in the American grain, as reliable as a Stickley chair and with the companionable embrace of a Craftsman bungalow, each of his books renews one\u2019s hopes for poems and people, as well as one\u2019s love for country fiddlers and garden fiddleheads.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.pshares.org\/issues\/summer-2020\/book-recommendations-our-former-guest-editors<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.hamilton.edu\/alumni\/books\/2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Came Home: Works on Paper from Hikes in the Mountains<\/a><\/blockquote>