In his own phrase, his art can be “fire that flames upon an iron tree,” and his poems are often Gifts grown from moist grasses, split Granite, or from difficult places where No life seems to stir.

“This one also has a granite extension, so hand-split granite rocks were added in order to widen (N.C.) 200. We knew it was almost this wide in 1937.” That extension is a rare example of a ...