Topsoil Road: Poems

Robert Morgan’s newest collection of poetry is a treasury of snapshots in time, celebrating the past and present in Morgan’s native region of western North Carolina and the Green River Valley. Topsoil Road features two parts: the first flowing smoothly from Cherokee history to the arrival of the poet’s Welsh forebears; the second eloquently depicting the intricacies of nature and how they are subjected to the world of man. Whether describing the Cherokee chief Attakullakulla in London or the way a zebra spider glides across the sky, Morgan casts each poem with elegance and a rare sense of wonder, turning minute observations of the commonplace into portraits of delicate and significant beauty.

Robert Morgan, Kappa Alpha professor of English at Cornell University, is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and fiction, including the novel Gap Creek and short story collection The Balm of Gilead Tree. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, Atlantic Monthly, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He has received the James B. Hanes Poetry Prize, the North Carolina Award in Literature, and Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for his works, which explore the culture and history of his native North Carolina mountains.