United States, (1941-2014)
Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig
- At sunset on a November day, the world unrolls
- itself beside the Western Kentucky Parkway.
- Gilded in sunlight, bronze as a baby shoe,
- the dead leaves burn on the trees, red, gold,
- black, spread rich as an Oriental rug.
- Green flames of side-lit cedars burnish all.
- Then, over the short horizon appears the hero,
- alien as brontosaurus, strange,
- but of a multitude: white pigs,
- a field full, eating, all snouts
- to the ground they’ve rooted up, plowed
- like furrows in the cognac-colored light.
- That earth should take the form of this
- strange beast, should eat itself and shift
- into this shape! The bows of their backs
- gold-leafed: snout and mouth to golden earth,
- as hungry as one breath for the next.
- Unnatural as Midas’ kingdom
- in the sideways sun, what other
- brutes could translate this
- bright dirt? This heavy
- light? These showers of gold?
About the Poet:
Jane Gentry, United States, (1941-2014), also known as Jane Gentry Vance, was a poet, essayist, reviewer and educator. Gentry earned degrees in a B.A. In English literature from Hollins College, an M.A. from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduation, she came back to her native Kentucky and taught English at University of Kentucky for 40 years.
Gentry served as Kentucky’s poet laureate from 2007-2008. She was a beloved and influential University of Kentucky educator, mentor to generations of young writers and other former students, and a unique Kentucky voice.
A true practitioner of her craft, Jane Gentry had an uncanny ability to spin quietly expansive and wise verses from small details, objects and remembered moments, perfectly capturing the essence of lyricism. Her poetry is deeply rooted in place, exuding a strong connection to the life and land of her native Kentucky. [DES-03/22]