RENAISSANCE MAN
by Philip Belcher
For Albert Blackwell
Only once in thirty years have we spoken,
but reading Epictetus reminded me of you:
biking to campus on your 10-speed Schwinn,
the daily khakis and the button-down, blue,
the volume of Stoics in your messenger bag.
In my study, your Schleiermacher monograph
leans against The Selected Letters of Keats.
A pipe cleaner marks the title page, the kindness
you inscribed there. And the modest light
on my books brings back the permanent dusk
of your room in Furman Hall where once
I found you sitting cross-legged on your desk,
humming a Morley madrigal and puzzling
your way through Dürer’s Melencolia I.
____________________________
Philip Belcher has published poetry and critical prose in a variety
of literary journals including Passages North, Shenandoah,
Asheville Poetry Review, South Dakota Review, Southeast
Review, Fugue, and The Southern Quarterly. In 2007, his
chapbook, The Flies and Their Lovely Names, was published
by Stepping Stones Press at the University of South Carolina.
Belcher is an Advisory and Contributing Editor for Shenandoah
and holds degrees from Furman University, Southeastern Seminary,
the Duke University School of Law, and Converse College (MFA).
He currently serves as Vice President, Programs, of The Community
Foundation of Western North Carolina in Asheville.
◄ Home page Apple Valley Review, Fall 2014 Next Page ►
For Albert Blackwell
Only once in thirty years have we spoken,
but reading Epictetus reminded me of you:
biking to campus on your 10-speed Schwinn,
the daily khakis and the button-down, blue,
the volume of Stoics in your messenger bag.
In my study, your Schleiermacher monograph
leans against The Selected Letters of Keats.
A pipe cleaner marks the title page, the kindness
you inscribed there. And the modest light
on my books brings back the permanent dusk
of your room in Furman Hall where once
I found you sitting cross-legged on your desk,
humming a Morley madrigal and puzzling
your way through Dürer’s Melencolia I.
____________________________
Philip Belcher has published poetry and critical prose in a variety
of literary journals including Passages North, Shenandoah,
Asheville Poetry Review, South Dakota Review, Southeast
Review, Fugue, and The Southern Quarterly. In 2007, his
chapbook, The Flies and Their Lovely Names, was published
by Stepping Stones Press at the University of South Carolina.
Belcher is an Advisory and Contributing Editor for Shenandoah
and holds degrees from Furman University, Southeastern Seminary,
the Duke University School of Law, and Converse College (MFA).
He currently serves as Vice President, Programs, of The Community
Foundation of Western North Carolina in Asheville.
◄ Home page Apple Valley Review, Fall 2014 Next Page ►
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Apple Valley Review:
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 9, Number 2
(Fall 2014)
Copyright © 2014
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 9, Number 2
(Fall 2014)
Copyright © 2014
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
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