On the Work of Norbert Krapf
In half a lifetime of
writing history and poetry about the Catholic communities of the Jasper
[Indiana] area and their German antecedents, Krapf has shown a sense
of place and ethnic identity that radiates out to universal brotherhood.
In Blue-Eyed Grass, his most personal and yet his most magnanimous
work, he reminds us of the all-American Walt Whitman, who remained "a part
of all that I have met," and of Wendell Berry, who sings of his beloved
Kentucky that he has seen the worst and best of humankind there.
Dan Carpenter, The Indianapolis Star
With its emphasis on the specificities of a place and its people,
Krapf's poetry has deep affinities with the local color tradition of
American literature. But like Kentucky poet Wendell Berry, Krapf's
forté is in recognizing the spiritual interaction between a people and
their place.
John Groppe, Sycamore Review
His poems
are of Indiana—the people, the land and the plants. They are sensually
rich and wildly accessible. They evoke images as well as smells. And
they demonstrate so clearly why he was named, this past June, as Indiana
Poet Laureate…This [Bloodroot: Indiana Poems] is a collection to
be savored.”
Michael Zimmerman, The Indianapolis Star
|
