by Ted Hirschfield Ted Hirschfield, amateur archaeologist and historian of the culture of the Mound People of the Midwest, opens up a new world for us, a world that is almost gone. His poems tell the story of the once-mighty, now eroded or leveled earthworks of the Indians of this region. It is a melancholy tale of the insensitivity and greed of the white man, from de Soto to modern real estate developers. "Temple Mound, Memphis, Tennessee"
begins: But Middle Mississippians is more than a precise recital of depredation. Through his passion for unearthing, examining, describing, and actually holding the artifacts of these ancient people, Hirschfield makes them leap to life for us. In poem after poem, he pays tribute to the builders of these mounds, which he has studied, climbed, and combed for years, and gives us treasures that were once the common objects of work and play and worship for these vanished people.
University of Central Florida Contemporary Poetry Series
1996. 72 pp. 5 1/2 X 8 1/2
ISBN 0-8130-1430-1
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"The crystal-clear poems not only re-create for us the artifacts and gravesites of the red men that have fascinated this poet for three decades and more; they mull over the abiding mystery, for all who have the imagination to seek it out, of the prehistoric Americans. Ted Hirschfield is a wonderer--and a wonder, too."-- Louis D. Rubin, Jr. "To read these wonderful poems is to accompany a wise poet on a fascinating archaeological excavation that uncovers our nation's unacknowledged and unremembered past. Middle Mississippians counterpoints moving and dramatic treatments of prehistoric Amerindians, native Americans like Tuscaloosa, invading Europeans like de Soto, and present-day Americans who are their descendants."-- Robert Hamblin
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