David Hightower’s lyrically expansive meditation on the whims of fate and the unpredictability of the human condition fill the pages of THE HANGING MAN DREAMS with thrilling music and mesmerizing imagery. Hightower’s richly infused voice echoes the eternal wisdom of classic literature even as it stakes its claim to a bold new vision of poetry as a more than capable vehicle for every experience from the chillingly macabre to the sublimely transcendent.
Long established as one of the American South’s best kept literary secrets, David Hightower is a poet with gifts worthy of a world audience. His works have appeared in such publications as the following: Atlanta Review/Cotton Boll; The Atlanta Quarterly; Georgia on My Mind: An Anthology of Contemporary Writers; Georgia State University Review; Lullwater Review; Old Red Kimono; The Savannah Literary Journal; Share; and Wind Magazine.
(Hanging Man Dreams art by Bill Amos)
Colors of dreams creak and whirl
filling the old man’s hilly acres.
Carved things with wings
soar against the sky;
hawks, owls, crows, eagles,
bluebirds, bats, demons, angels.
Down the hillside
he gives wings to everything.
A green fish swims through currents of air;
an orange lion roars in grinding gusts;
a jointed snake wriggles through rattling weather;
loose-limbed figures dance together
to the tapping of their own small feet.
Flesh of wood and nerves of wire
spin with a breeze transformed to breath.
A stick tree swirls rainbow blossoms;
a circus yellow sun rises and sets;
Adam and Eve in a carved garden
raise the cherry-red apple of death,
yet never quite take the bite.
The old man is like a young boy
forever emptying his pockets.
He makes the shapes the clouds make,
playthings for the wind.
Professional Reviews VISIONS OF THE POETS, Part 3
“The poetry of The Hanging Man Dreams is unified less by a single theme than it is by a progression of complimentary themes, like a musical score building up from its first intriguing notes to a veritable exultation of chords and choruses. Pondering the nearly incomprehensible fate of the Hanging Man, David Hightower offers an amazing vision of what it must have been like to exist inside the spinning mind, faltering lungs, and struggling heart of a life balanced on the edge of extinction and madness.
“The poems that come whirling out of this spiritual chaos reveal Hightower as a poet deeply rooted in the history, ecology, folklore, and personality of his native north Georgia region at the same time that he instinctively transcends it. For sure, there is a kinship between Hightower’s literary sensibility and that of the legendary Byron Herbert Reece, but theirs is a kinship defined more by geographical proximity than poetic form, tone of voice, subject matter, or even sense of place. In that regard, Hightower shares stronger ties with another fellow Georgian: James Dickey. Both possess the very useful gift of being able to write simultaneously from the inside and outside of a given moment…”
From: THE BLACK SKYLARK Z-PED MUSIC PLAYER
A Study in Alliteration
Every poem inside The Hanging Man Dreams can stand on its own. The author, David Hightower, is adept at mingling startlingly vivid images with atmosphere in such a way that the images cling to the reader's mind long after reading one of his gripping poems. The images are created with connotative-rich words and unique word combinations. You would really have to search hard to find a cliché in his book. Also, the ideas behind each poem have an earthy "realness" to them. They seduce the mind with their seemingly unassuming topics, so that you are drawn in, and are able to experience his poetry on a personal level. His meter is natural speech-lilt, and there are no sappy rhyme-heavy poems among the collection.
I'd say Hightower's trademark is assonance and alliteration. He knows his vowels and consonants--what works well with what--and he knows how to use them. He creates powerful atmosphere with the subtle use of this knowledge. His poetry is a study in how to use alliteration to the utmost advantage. Often he'll use it to marry lines together. The sounds merge, and liquefy. The average reader won't even notice that it's there, just think that it's nice and fluid, but all the while his masterful weaving of this tool is creating an atmosphere of sounds that make the images pop out alive in the reader's mind. For example: "...and watched the wings of offspring soar..." The image of a bird watching his offspring soar holds. The line is heavy with archetypal symbolism. It could be you there, watching your children growing. And the sounds of the line help hold that image. You can feel those "w"-sounds in your mouth like wind--the subtle inner rhyme of "wings" and "offspring" merge the images of the two words in your mind; the repetitive vowel sound in "watched" and "off" add extra emphasis to the already stressed syllables; the soft "s" of "spring" echoing in "soar", breathes a fluidity of motion; and also, "soar" slants a rhyme with the unseen prior line's "corn", marrying the lines together, and like I said, the image holds. It's not easy to write like that. It takes masterful skill, some of which is intuitive, and much of it carefully kneaded in to the right consistency.
That line which belongs to "Allatoona Lake" is just a random sample of Hightower's amazing writing style. All of the poems in The Hanging Man Dreams are made of such imagery and intricate sound mingling. So when you read the book, don't miss the pleasure of reading the poems out loud. It reminds me of eating a Jolly Rancher--mouth-watering sounds rolling around in your mouth, spreading long-lasting flavory yumminess all over your tongue's senses--except that this book is calorie-free....
Gary and Zizza
Life's Journey
As the person of the hanging man balances his life so precariously he speaks to us of life. The poetry and the poet create a world that's tangible...almost tactile. You somehow know the people that populate the pages and the truth that is spoken there. The work is real and moving. Well worth the read.
Lovely words to be sure. However, I was a bit surprised to find it listed under Aberjani's name and had to go through it all to find out it wasn't the great poet's words, but another great poet's words. So who cares as long as it's great poetry.
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A people’s heart can be found in their poetic words. In history men and women have stood firmly upon their soapboxes and street corners, rallying the deepest beliefs of people to rise up and be heard. The poetrypages.com has offered that voice a new
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