Robert P. Arthur: Selected Works

“Arthur makes me nostalgic for places I’ve never been” —The Virginian-Pilot“Each rereading of this narrative delights me more.” -- Pleasant Living Magazine“…masterfully depicts life on and around the Chesapeake.” -- Currents“…Passionate knowledge…keen observation.” -- The News Journal, Delaware“…as tough and genuine as a waterman’s palm…these rhythms are the sway of boats on tide waters…wind, straining ropes, and snapping sails.” -- Ghent Magazine“…a powerful introduction to those who do not know the Bay…a delightful reminder for those who do.” -- Eastern Shore NewsA poet of international renown, Robert P. Arthur is a virtuoso practitioner of a wide variety of forms. His work displays an acute feel for drama and a vivid sense of place. This collection includes the best of hundreds of poems written over a forty-year career. They include The Arrow, Wikipedia, The Poetess of Blue Streak Grill, Cattle Sleeping (or Sleeping Cattle), Appearances, Sunday Seizures, and poems in series: Vija’s War, and Crazy Horse’s Woman. Emotionally and intellectually charged monologues portray such diverse characters as disillusioned Jamestown settlers, Crazy Horse’s death-obsessed lover, a Latvian child caught up in World War II, Appalachian snake handlers, Chesapeake Bay watermen, Vincent van Gogh, as well as the voice(s) of Arthur himself. These works immortalize a doomed natural world of grief, joy, and unparalleled beauty. Both accessible and lyrical, they'll delight both poetry lovers and those new to the genre. "This is the hour/Of keenest memory?/The invisible shore/Shudders/In impossible thunder...."Robert P. Arthur grew up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and in Norfolk, Virginia. He has a M.A. from the University of Richmond, where he studied under historian Clifford Dowdey, and a M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas, where he studied under poet Miller Williams and fiction writer William Harrison. He teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. Arthur has written over twenty books of poems and plays, and over a thousand articles on the arts. He lives in Onancock on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with his wife, Gray, and has five children: Nicole, Hannah, Elizabeth, Robert William, and Eudora.