Laban Carrick Hill

Contemporary Poetry of
New England

DUCK BLIND

The mallards migrate south with Fall’s fury.
They honk as if bad traffic lay ahead.
Their flight a V, that kind of wedge
That carves the cloudless air invisibly,
While hunters hunker down among the reeds
And blow their calls like horns to celebrate
Their tractors’ final lap to cultivate
The fruit of summer heat’s discharge of seeds.

The paranoid fly on, regrouping ranks,
As others, just as dumb, drop down their tails,
An act of trust, even submission, frail-
ty so basic to landing on the banks.
The camouflaged men pump their guns with cracks.
The flat-billed heads explode off banded necks.

Selected Works

1. Nonfiction
"Here’s a twofer: an expert biography of a hip hop and rap pioneer, and a not-to-be-missed picture-book debut by Taylor."--Publishers Weekly
"Phenomenal."–Howard Zinn "Excellent."–New York Times Book Review
“Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.”
--George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC
3. Poetry
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier.
“Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people…. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a “region poet,” although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost’s haunting dictum: ‘Locality gives art.’”
--from the Introduction
2. Fiction
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David.
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." –Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio
4. Middle Grade Series
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened.