Abstract:
This is a collection of ten poems and three short fiction pieces about life in Indiana. The title reveals an umbrella theme that exists in the bulk of writing here-NOSTALGIA-whether it is meant truly or ironically. Each piece is a memory or an experience that recreates the essence of the content. The result is a creation that is either nostalgic or mimics nostalgia, a trait that creates a reminiscent feeling throughout the collection. Some of these pieces are autobiographical, in which memories and experiences play a large role. Others are simply observations I feel are representative of my home state, ideas and settings that describe unique qualities of the Hoosier state. “Lake Patoka,” “Morse Park and Beach,” “Grandfather’s House,” “The Church,” and “Looking Backward Out of a Van on US 31” are direct results of interaction with the landscape. “Cutting through Cold,” “the fall out of summer,” and ”The Threat of Flowers” are poems inspired by the Indiana seasons. “The Ghost of Elwood Haynes” is a prose piece that places an early twentieth century inventor and industrialist in the modern day, discussing matters of innovation and disintegration. “Cracked Driver’s Side Mirror” and “you” are romantic images necessary in any collection of poems, and “the earth good” is an anti-romantic, anti-Whitmanic poem that illustrates the domestic abuse that runs rampant in the state and the nation. The last piece of the collection is the short story “Busted Event,” which presents the landscape of a particular relationship, the strains, and the eventual dissolution.
