More Than Heavy Rain brings together poems of intense observation culled from a life lived mostly outside. Set mostly around the poet's home along the Watauga River in northeast Tennessee, the poems also reach out to such distant locations as Montana, Alaska, and post-war Germany. Some of them reconstruct the poet's childhood in rural West Virginia. Some examine his family history, the events and relatives who helped determine the way he views the world.
LIKE TURNING ON A SWITCH
In a day and a night the leaves of all four
Gingko trees in the courtyard fell,
Fanned out in one direction by a south wind
As if they had been deliberately laid.
Even in half-light they glowed
As if a door had been opened at mid-court
Spilling brightness onto the grass.
But there was no door, no room into which
One might lead, no light to shine out,
Just yellow leaves, four shadow-anchored
Boats, straining to pull away with the tide.