As Sweet as 'Dumpster Honey,' New Short Talks Features Poet and Professor Davis McCombs

Russell Cothren, University Relations

Davis McCombs reads from "Lore," his most recent collection of poems.

"Gonna be a cold one, Professor…" says Scup, a character in Lore, Davis McComb's new collection of poems. Scup is one of several people who teach the poet about his new home.

McCombs, director of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences' Department of English, explains that many poems in the book focus on "that process of feeling my way into writing poems about the Ozarks and of beginning to feel at home here."

In the latest edition of Short Talks from the Hill, a podcast from the University of Arkansas, McCombs, poet, professor and director of the program in creative writing and translation at the University of Arkansas, reads three elegiac poems about his life in the Ozarks. He covers much ground, from an aggressive bee colony in a dumpster outside Kimpel Hall to the ghost of an old man who many years ago placed white pebbles in the knot of a bois d'arc tree on McComb's property.

Before reading each poem, McCombs discusses inspiration, creative process and the craft. In the end, he pays tribute to "this neglected spot," the legions of "artists who may live and die, unknown and unrecognized."

To hear McCombs read and discuss his work, go to ResearchFrontiers.uark.edu, the home of research news at the University of Arkansas. Listeners can also find Short Talks From the Hill podcasts under the "Local & Podcast" link at KUAF.com.

Short Talks From the Hill highlights research and scholarly work at the University of Arkansas. Each segment features a university researcher discussing his or her work. For more information and additional podcasts, click on the Multimedia link at ResearchFrontiers.uark.edu.