Red Hydra Press

The Poetry Foundation says: "Rodney Jones was born in 1950 in rural Alabama. He has described his childhood and youth as 'very much like being a part of another age. Our community still did not have electricity until I was 5 or 6 years old.' His poetry frequently celebrates the relationships and events of the small, agrarian community he was born into, as well as preserves the kinds of vernacular speech he grew up hearing. ... Jones’s work is known for its investigation of place and memory, and its use of narrative, anecdote, and image.

"Jones studied at the University of Alabama and the University of North Carolina, where he earned his MFA. Since 1985 he has taught at the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he is professor of English."

Dana Moore is an artist living in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. The illustrations for "Twelve Fables" are from her series "Nests." I create my work in series that establish relationships between images and between series. I think of all of these projects as relating to home — how we create it to reflect our lives and encompass our memories.

 

EAGLE
The eagle above the house,
which on further inspection
turned out to be a vulture,
remains an eagle in my poem.

For years it has been an eagle,
To change it back to what
it was would only remind me
how little that fact matters …