Nixon

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=120 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0ec8dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>FootHills Publishing 2008</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FootHills Publishing 2008"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books 2008"><U>Books 2008</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Krok"><U>Krok</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thomas"><U>Thomas</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lunt"><U>Lunt</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Waber"><U>Waber</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mesler"><U>Mesler</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arnold"><U>Arnold</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Landsman"><U>Landsman</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Holley"><U>Holley</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Burchell"><U>Burchell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Parlato"><U>Parlato</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Whittle"><U>Whittle</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hays"><U>Hays</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Roche"><U>Roche</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jones"><U>Jones</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Barone"><U>Barone</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="McKee"><U>McKee</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Czarnecki"><U>Czarnecki</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Seaton"><U>Seaton</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lyons"><U>Lyons</U></A>   |   <B>Nixon</B>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Holmes"><U>Holmes</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="McDonnell"><U>McDonnell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Evans"><U>Evans</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michalak"><U>Michalak</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ballard"><U>Ballard</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bauer"><U>Bauer</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ikins"><U>Ikins</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jefferis"><U>Jefferis</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Campbell"><U>Campbell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Laura Glenn"><U>Laura Glenn</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Roberta Gould"><U>Roberta Gould</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Carmine Dandrea"><U>Carmine Dandrea</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rhonda Morton"><U>Rhonda Morton</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Suzanne Shane"><U>Suzanne Shane</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kathleen Jo Zimmerman"><U>Kathleen Jo Zimmerman</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vicie Rolling"><U>Vicie Rolling</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sueann Wells"><U>Sueann Wells</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>Ordering By Mail</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact FHP"><U>Contact FHP</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=360 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0ec8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>Nixon</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Will Nixon</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>My Late Mother </B></div> <div> <B>as a Ruffed Grouse</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="1ad2cd90.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="473" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> Will Nixon grew up in the Connecticut suburbs, lived in Hoboken and Manhattan, then moved to a Catskills log cabin, and now lives in Woodstock, New York. As a journalist, he was a contributing editor to <I>The Amicus Journal</I>, published by the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a correspondent for the<I> Adirondack Explorer</I>. His poetry chapbooks are <I>When I Had It Made</I> (Pudding House) and <I>The Fish Are Laughing</I> (Pavement Saw). His poems have appeared in such journals as <I>The Ledge</I>, <I>Rattle</I>, <I>Slipstream</I>, <I>Wisconsin Review</I>, and many others. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and listed in </div> <div> <I>The Best American Essays of 2004. </I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> From the book:</div> <bR> <div> <B>My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse</B></div> <div>           -- <I>Ashokan High Point, Catskills</I></div> <bR> <div> Never before had a grouse failed to explode</div> <div> from the underbrush with a wing-beating panic,</div> <div> a feathered cannonball fanning a leaf-ripping tail.</div> <div> But this bird didn't budge. It kept pecking</div> <div> at leaf litter as methodically as a maid </div> <div> checking under cushions for coins.</div> <div> For several minutes, I focused my binoculars</div> <div> on its lady-bug eyes, its black-banded tail,</div> <div> but didn't want to spoil the magic by staying too long. </div> <bR> <div> Bushwhacking through acres of mountain laurel,</div> <div> I navigated tangled stalks like woody barbed wire. </div> <div> Finally, a boulder ramp led me down to a clearing. </div> <div> But which direction to the reservoir lookout,</div> <div> rumored to lie east of the blueberry bald, </div> <div> I couldn't sense any better than from above.</div> <div> Behind me, I spotted the grouse half-sliding,</div> <div> half-hopping on clownish chicken feet to catch up. </div> <div> It stopped on the rock, cocked its head sideways, </div> <div> then eye-balled me with an orange intensity. </div> <div> Oh, yes, I remembered that look, </div> <div> unblinking, undeterred, unashamed </div> <div> of being in charge, yet being in love. </div> <bR> <div> Could this bird really be my late mother? </div> <div> At her burial last winter I scattered grouse feathers</div> <div> to honor her passion as an Audubon birder. </div> <div> Did I unwittingly plant the seed for her return?</div> <div> Crippled by strokes, she lived so long in a nursing home</div> <div> she had no idea I lived in a cabin, not Hoboken </div> <div> or Manhattan. To her, I was always 23 and married, </div> <div> for some unfathomable reason, to my cousin, Muggsie. </div> <bR> <div> This grouse clearly knew what she wanted. </div> <div> Softly she cooed and finally winked.</div> <div> I murmured my best grouse impersonation, </div> <div> eager to talk no matter what we happened to say. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> I sat on the grass, an invitation she accepted </div> <div> to prance close to my boots, cocky as a city pigeon.</div> <div> For her country outing, she'd dressed</div> <div> in subdued browns and whites, but make no mistake:</div> <div> her feathered crest sharpened her head.</div> <div> When her blinking turned almost flirtatious,</div> <div> I lowered my eyes, apparently a fresh invitation,</div> <div> for she paraded alongside my leg, pausing </div> <div> every few steps to nip at a blueberry flower. </div> <div> With my hands I could have cradled her like a dove,</div> <div> cooing, content. Was that what she wanted?</div> <div> Behind my back, she pecked at my daypack zipper.</div> <bR> <div> How could I explain my bachelor's cabin,</div> <div> the dirty socks from last week's hike still hanging</div> <div> on the upstairs railing, the dirty dishes forever </div> <div> crowding the sink? Did she think</div> <div> she'd be satisfied eating seeds from a bowl</div> <div> made of plastic and sharing my cold wooden floor</div> <div> with the mice? Didn't she know</div> <div> I could be arrested for bringing a grouse home</div> <div> under the Wildlife Protection Act?</div> <div> Did she know how rarely I swept?</div> <bR> <div> No, I needed to end this strange encounter.</div> <div> I stood and shouldered my pack, nodded good-bye.</div> <div> But giant steps up the rock didn't do any good.</div> <div> She hopped up her own crooked ladder</div> <div> of laurel stalks, then paused at the next dirt patch</div> <div> for me to catch up. How could I shake her?</div> <div> Whenever I plunged in a new direction,</div> <div> climbing and tripping through bushes,</div> <div> she scampered nearby, easily low-hurdling</div> <div> trunk tangles and roots. I barged like an oaf,</div> <div> but she didn't act disappointed in me as a grouse. </div> <div> She waited and cooed with encouragement. </div> <div> Not until I broke loose on the blueberry bald</div> <div> did she stop at the edge of her laurel protectorate.</div> <bR> <div> Yet no matter how long I rested on the only boulder,</div> <div> pretending to admire the quixotic flight</div> <div> of black butterflies sampling blueberry nectar,</div> <div> I knew she waited with unbending love and devotion </div> <div> in the bushes I couldn't avoid to hike home.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse <IMG SRC="1af96780.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="120" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> is an 88 page hand-stitched paper book with spine.</div> <div> $16.00</div> <bR> <div> TO ORDER  ON-LINE  </div> <bR> <div> From the US or Canada       <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="08-19"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="16.00"> <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> From Other Countries           <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="add" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="08-19"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="16.00"> <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="5.00"> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> </form>  </B></div> <bR> <div>  <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_cart"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="fhp@foothillspublishing.com"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/images/view_cart.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> <input type="hidden" name="display" value="1"> </form>  </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>To order through mail click here.</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>