“Conversational eloquence is always a given in Glover Davis’s poetry. Ordinary men and women are lifted by the clarity and intimacy of their observations to something resembling a state of grace. From the carnal meat—both animal and human—that he considers in his sequence of poems based on paintings by Chaim Soutine to his vision of deliverance in the collection’s concluding poem, “Burial Dream,” Glover Davis has placed the question mark of mortality, inverted like a hook, hanging before our eyes. Maturity and experience are said to breed wisdom. You are holding a book of profound wisdoms in your hands.”
—from the foreward by David St. John
“In Spring Drive, the detailed attention paid to the world—the landscape that enfolds us, the events that mark us—is a springboard for the imagination, and that imagination is in turn a platform for engaging the deep themes of Time, mortality, and the soul. Davis’s is a natural voice, and despite the meaning it tries to wrestle from experience, a reader is always initially taken with the drama, music, and imagery line to line. These poems recognize the beauty and inherent frailty of our place on earth, even in the language we use to praise it. Davis, importantly, examines the classic myths and great histories—Plato, Orpheus, WWII—and in lines that are gritty, experiential, accessible, and personal in the best sense, he recovers the meaning of our lives, and holds it up shining.”
—Christopher Buckley
“A “traditionalist” and a “formalist,” Glover Davis is among the most original voices in all of American poetry. The plodding grace of his verses is in the service of a moral intelligence that is essential to our time. Anyone who believes that poetry is necessary must absorb this good man’s beautiful life and beautiful verses, which are the same.”
—Richard Katrovas
“Glover Davis is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at San Diego State University, where he taught for almost forty years. His books of poetry are Bandaging Bread, August Fires, Legend, and, most recently, Separate Lives, which appeared in 2007. Davis was born in San Luis Obispo and spent four years of his early childhood in Catholic orphanages run by Irish nuns. He attended parochial schools throughout his youth. After graduating high school, he served in the Navy and then attended Fresno State College where he was influenced by teachers Phillip Levine and Robert Mezey and by fellow student Ollie Simpson (later Ollie Mezey) to take up poetry writing. While at Fresno State, he also played tackle on the football team until financial constraints forced him to go to work. He went on to attend the University of Iowa Writers Workshop and then began his long career at San Diego State University. Davis and his late wife Sandra had one son, Michael, who is an accomplished fiction writer. After retiring from San Diego State, Davis returned to the Fresno area and now lives in the foothills near Coarsegold, California. In addition to his four collections of poetry, Davis has published his work in many journals, including The Southern Review, Poetry, The New England Review, and The Journal.
