The Pilgrimage, Selected Poems: 1962-2012
by Dave Oliphant
In the tradition of literary pilgrimages, the one in this book is both physical and spiritual. Dave Oliphant moves us around West, Central, and East Texas in poems named after towns: Wink, Denton, Houston, Honey Island.
These poems find the spiritual in the ordinary and share such insights through sight and sound—especially the many sounds of music. Read the poems aloud and listen; you will hear music through the entire collection. The first poem starts the book’s pilgrimage with a psalm of daily life, and the final poem offers a magnificent chorus of folk songs, symphonies, yodels, pop music, and more.
Lovers of poetry will return often to this book, always finding lines to ponder and treasure.
Order from any bookstore, local or online. This title is also available from Fleur Fine Books of Galveston, Texas.
About the Author
An alumnus of Lamar University and member of the Texas Institute of Letters, Dave Oliphant has published 27 books; among these are eleven volumes of poetry, including Maria’s Poems (1987), winner of an Austin Book Award; four books on jazz history, including Texan Jazz (1996) and Jazz Mavericks of the Lone Star State (2007), published by the University of Texas Press, and KD a Jazz Biography (2012); three edited anthologies of Texas poetry; and a memoir, Harbingers of Books to Come: A Texan’s Literary Life (2009). His English version of Nicanor Parra’s Discursos De sobremesa (as After-Dinner Declarations) won the Texas Institute of Letter’s 2011 Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Book Translation.