Tim Peeler
LARRY’S POEMS OF PLACE
This porch is where I spit;
That yard is where I piss
Under a moon like tonight’s
Watching the neighbor’s
White reindeer lights.
Even from here
By the grape vines
Where I stand uneasily,
I sense the contours of darkness
Hovering over the terraced field.
No evil moves me.
I spark a joint
Or I don’t.
The black slow dance.
Maybe this is
Some kind of love.
Author’s Comment: These poems are part of a manuscript called Rough Beast that uses a narrative arc to follow the life of Larry Ledbetter, a country gangster turned-writer.
Wild Goose Poetry Review 
Can’t wait for this manuscript to become a book. Even gangsters are human through Peeler’s eyes. “I sense the contours of darkness/ Hovering over the terraced field./ No evil moves me.” Wow. Just wow.
I am waiting for more of Larry. This poem kills!
Tim, hard to imagine such a person, but you have, and now so do your readers. We are believers.
Maybe it’s a matter of experience. Growing up as I did, I feel like I’ve known Larry, and I certainly feel like O’Connor’s “Misfit” would have written plenty if someone had given him a pen. And then, I’ve had more than one surprisingly brilliant and insightful student who came to community college after a stay in “the high rise.” Sometimes they stick with it; sometimes they disappear.
this is my favorite Larry poem of the ones you have here…i love the opening and last lines. very well framed. i am a sucker for character series poems. one of my favorite books of poems is Dara Wier’s book, The 8-Step Grapevine
This is one I love most of what’s here. Looking forward with great eagerness to seeing more!