Description
Franco Pagnucci’s new collection of poems explores his world from lake country to seashore. Creatures such as the red fox who sometimes stop to interact with the poet are the main characters. Pagnucci celebrates life transcendent and draws readers into moments of awareness—morning light on a blue-black fisher, a river otter smacking her lips, or a kingbird twittering on the May air.
Praise for Again the Red Fox
“Again the Red Fox is a strong, beautiful book about the natural world and our place within it. Populated with a multitude of different animals, it is the fox that stands out, interwoven throughout these poems like a proud, red thread. And as the poet-speaker observes the fox, so too does the fox observe the speaker, reminding us that we are all a ‘part and particle of the universe,’ as Emerson said.”
—Laura C. Wendorff, Professor Emeritus in English, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
“Again the Red Fox is an invitation to be aware. Woods, prairies, swales, and ponds are teeming with species, though it’s the red fox in these poems who is ever surprising us or taking cover, present even in its absence, nature exquisitely sensing itself.”
—Mauricio Guevara, Emeritus Professor UW-Milwaukee. Author of Poema, Autobiography of So-and-so, and Poems in Prose
“In Again the Red Fox, Franco Pagnucci masterfully weaves haunting glimpses of nature, love, and life. The imagery is so intense it feels as if his memories are melded with the readers’—allowing readers to see those scenes anew. Like a fox, images flash, then disappear.”
—Barbara Huntington, former State of Wisconsin Public Library Consultant
Kathryn Gahl –
Visceral impressions of animals and innumerable earthly delights appear in Again the Red Fox, but it is love and the lover who inspire the poet, each entry short as a flash of light as “us” and “we” stop to look, listen and feel thick snow, bluebirds, tundra swans, a pink Cadillac, even a clarinet sonata as the poet and his beloved note the wonders of earth. Pagnucci feels “a leap out of my skin” before a wren, peeper, mallard, fawn and always the red fox disappear “into the quickening darkness” where adorations of animal, earth, and sweetheart meld together.
-Kathryn Gahl, author of The Velocity of Love and The Yellow Toothbrush: A Memoir of Trauma and Mercy
Lorraine Francioni (verified owner) –
I was moved to tears after reading some passages in Again the Red Fox. By capturing the simplest moments in time, Franco Pagnucci gave me pause to reflect on how fleeting time is and how truly precious the moments and memories become.
~Lorraine Francioni
Susan Pagnucci –
Franco Pagnucci’s Again the Red Fox is a fun book to read. I loved finding silences such as a small toad “quiet as a dust ball,” and noises like a beaver’s tail slapping the water “with a cannonball’s ‘thunk’.” Every poem is an encounter that helps our eyes and ears get more attuned to the world around us.
–Susan Mary
Jessi Waugh –
Again the Red Fox calls the objects of its desire with soft sounds and subtle songs; this must be how you talk to foxes and lovers so they’ll step their fleet feet into your poetry and your world.