Written in the gothic tradition of James Dickey?s Buckdancer?s Choice, Brightwood contains thirty-eight poems set in the American South. This intellectual and emotionally powerful collection is an interplay of southern music, religion, and culture with nature. Driven by memories of life in the rural, segregated South, the poems seek out beauty in an attempt to stave off loneliness, pain, and loss. The lyrics are moving, the language crackles, and the past haunts every verse.