Whether Drupe or Pome by Associate Professor Zachary Ludington
Whether Drupe or Pome is about taking chances. When the spotlight lands on us, these poems insist that “for the heart-bust hour, the big-boy feats, / you don’t get to set your own alarm.” But they’re also insistent on our inability to read the signs of any critical juncture, to know whether we’re picking the right fruit or whether it’s even the right time. Whether Drupe or Pome is interested in these “critical” moments in the most etymological sense; it remembers —obliquely— the judgment of Paris, the Garden of the Hesperides, ancient ciphers of an even more ancient yearning for the unpredictable opportunity to make a choice that leads to glory.
And here’s my author bio from the Bottlecap site (modify as needed):
Zachary Rockwell Ludington (he/él) is a scholar of Iberian avant-garde poetry, translator, and poet. He is currently working on a book on modernist pastoral in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan poetry at the beginning of the twentieth century. His creative work has appeared in PEN America, Numéro Cinq, Guesthouse, LEVELER, Ghost City Review, and other journals. His translation of Agustín Fernández Mallo’s Pixel Flesh, published by Cardboard House Press, won a grant from the PEN/Heim Translation Fund. Zach teaches Spanish at the University of Maine and lives with his wife and two little boys.
