January 2024 MBR The Poetry Shelf

The Poetry Shelf

Gods of Four Mile Creek
Phillip Howerton
Golden Antelope Press
https://golden-antelope-press.com
9781952232831, $18.95, PB, 124pp

https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Four-Mile-Creek-Photographs/dp/195223283X

Synopsis: "Gods of Four Mile Creek: Poems, Essays and Photographs by Philli=
p Howerton" explores the inescapable ambivalence we hold toward the places =
of our upbringing. In 68 exquisitely detailed poems, 19 photographs, and tw=
o essays, Phillip Howerton considers aspects of the world into which he was=
 born -- specifically the rivers, farms, fish, birds, and stubborn humans o=
f the rural Ozarks. As his explorations of "Folks, Living and Dead," "Amuse=
ments," and "Displacements" demonstrate, these elements may be gods of our =
own creation, gods which we simultaneously reject and embrace.

Howerton's poems bring careful attention to individuals who ponder, avoid, =
celebrate, and recognize themselves in the elements of their natural world.=
 By acknowledging their kinship with blackjack oaks, homeless groundhogs, o=
r discarded milk cans, readers come to discover much about who they were an=
d who they might become. In "Farm Team," for example, a lone boy plays base=
ball with trees and barn doors as imagined teammates. When "the barn founda=
tion/ hits another grounder" the "impossible catch" is "witnessed by a crow=
d/ of Holsteins." And readers see the imagination and resilience which farm=
 life once required and still requires.

"The Farm Forgets it was a Farm" begins thus: "The loft barn wears the same=
 faded sweater/ every day, with elbows worn thin where boards are missing."=
 In this personification of a farm aging into obsolescence, "fencerows grow=
 unruly like untrimmed eyebrows" and "no one/ visits." The poem ends with t=
he barn imagined as an old man sent off to a nursing home: "In the unmown f=
ields, winds with no place to be/ make a muffled uncertain shuffling sound/=
 like his stocking feet lost in his numbered hallway."

Ultimately, as a literary work, "Gods of Four Mile Creek" creates a sense o=
f being and belonging. And running through this landscape of place and self=
 is a seven-mile-long creek, oddly named "Four Mile Creek," filled with joy=
, tragedy, and relentless change.

Critique: Elegant, eloquent, memorable, "Gods of Four Mile Creek: Poems, Es=
says and Photographs by Phillip Howerton" will prove to be of immense value=
 to readers with an interest in contemporary family poetry and descriptive =
and deftly crafted verse celebrating memories of places and human experienc=
es. While especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, =
and college/university library Contemporary American Poetry collections and=
 supplemental curriculum studies lists, it should be noted that "Gods of Fo=
ur Mile Creek" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).

Editorial Note: Phillip Howerton is a sixth generation Ozarker who was brou=
ght upon a small farm in southern Dallas County, Missouri. After spending s=
everal years as a milk truck driver, a production worker, and a beef farmer=
, he earned degrees in English, history, and education from Drury Universit=
y and a doctorate in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He h=
as taught English at colleges and universities in the Ozarks for more than =
twenty years, is co-founder and co-editor of the Cave Region Review and gen=
eral editor of Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozark Studies. His essays, revi=
ews, and poems have appeared in a wide variety of journals. He received the=
 2019 Missouri Literary Award from the Missouri Library Association.

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