BEYOND THE STONE
collects two decades of verse
since Kibler's
POEMS FROM SCORCHED EARTH
. The volume's unifying motif is tribute and remembrance. The tributes range from literary and historical figures to the poet's kin, hearth and home. Reflecting the author's literary forebears, there are works honouring Homer, Horace, Dante, Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Moore, Simms, Timrod, Yeats, Hardy, Housman, Pearse, MacDonagh, Pound, Lytle, Wade, Tate, Faulkner, Rutledge, Dickey, Berry and Chappell. The poet does not eschew rhyme and traditional verse forms. There are sonnets, odes, elegies, satires and ballads. In the long Southern tradition, the verse shares the musicality of Poe, Simms and Lanier, but reflects modern concerns, from the 20th Century's wars and its Amazons of blood to urbanisation and its corrosive, homogenising effects. Throughout the collection, a primary tribute is to the Southern land and how it inspires the creed of memory. The volume also commemorates the craft of poetry itself. The author agrees with poet Donald Davidson that proper poetry is tradition. In remembering, the author hopes his poems effectively re-member their subjects and thus carry them into the future.