A Poet’s ‘Hardheaded’ Reflection on Life

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Poet Cornelius Eady’s new book is titled Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems. Putnam Books

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 5, 2008 · In his new collection, Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems, poet Cornelius Eady writes of his transition from urban renter to rural homeowner and the encroachment of middle age.

Eady’s previous collection, Brutal Imagination, was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in Poetry. He has collaborated with jazz composer Deidre Murray in the production of several works of musical theater including “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and “Running Man,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1999.

Andrés Segovia
Sits in a small room.

In the next room
The CIA reads ads
To his guitar.

Segovia
Asks for a glass of water.
No, old man,
Only when your guitar
Decides to reason with us
Then you’ll get a glass of water.

Segovia
Dreams of blue fish
As he sleeps
In his chair …

– Cornelius Eady
(from “U.S. Involvement in ‘Latin America’”)

BRIEFLY NOTED

“This collection of both new and previously published poems showcases Eady’s enormous range as a chronicler of contemporary American life—class, race, family, gender, jazz and blues, and the distinctions between urban and rural environments all play a role in these impeccable lyrics. Eady’s plain-spoken, pragmatic voice is accessible yet distinct, and the experiences he describes (being a victim of discrimination, watching a tough-minded father die, surviving prostate cancer) manage to seem both intimate and universal. Eady writes of being “a black, / American poet” whose “greatest weakness / is an inability / to sustain rage.” But, given the breadth and nuance of his palette, perhaps that is his greatest strength.”

The New Yorker (May 12, 2008)

A Marian Wood Book
Pubished by G.P. Putnam’s Sons
a member of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
April release: 224 pages
$24.95 US hardcover | $14.00 US trade paper

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