The sky is

a faithful
wilderness garment

hung
above the rain-

haunted mansion
skull of

a world below

golden ladder
reaching down

wheel of dust
rising

blooming in the air

T. Crunk’s first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was chosen by James Dickey as the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He has since published a number of children’s books, as well as several additional collections of poetry and short fiction. He currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama.

T. Crunk’s first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was chosen by James Dickey as the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He has since published a number of children’s books, as well as several additional collections of poetry and short fiction. He currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama.

T. Crunk’s first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was chosen by James Dickey as the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He has since published a number of children’s books, as well as several additional collections of poetry and short fiction. He currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama.

1. Encomium

Great bird of iron
born of crucible and anvil

first creation
of the forges of Tubalcain

your feathers
are strokes of black lightning

your head a fierce coal
struck from the netherside

of the sun your claws
have clutched the life

from Night’s throat
your names multiply

like seeds of darkness—
Magus Chaldean

gravebird hellwing
almsthief

—ravenous
you devour the earth

grain by grain
your piked tongue

sipped the death-
burnt waters

when you alone
strode

the roofbeam of the ark
gloating

over a world
gone down to anguish

and for this
your voice is rust now

is sand and thorn
your great wisdom

nothing now
but the outraged croakings

of a feeble
secondhand Pharaoh

2. Proverb

One crow sorrow
two crows mirth

three crows death
four crows birth

five crows poor
six crows rich

seven crows curse
eight crows wish

[…]

–T. Crunk,
Biblia Pauperum
Accents Publishing

T. Crunk’s first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was chosen by James Dickey as the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He has since published a number of children’s books, as well as several additional collections of poetry and short fiction. He currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama.

Whatever
ancient grief

our days
are rooted in

this is not
the end of it—

the abiding struggle

of clay
with fire

walls of
the potter’s kiln

weeping
tears of brick

–T. Crunk,
Biblia Pauperum (2013)
Accents Publishing

T. Crunk’s first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was chosen by James Dickey as the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He has since published a number of children’s books, as well as several additional collections of poetry and short fiction. He currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama.