''Buckdancer's Choice'' (1965) is a collection of poems by

James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award. Dickey is best known for his n ...

. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Poetry"National Book Awards – 1966"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-02-26. (With essay by Patrick Rosal from the Award's 60-year anniversary blog.) in 1966 and the

Melville Cane Melville Henry Cane (April 15, 1879 – March 10, 1980) was an American poet and lawyer. He studied at Columbia University, and was the author of the influential book, ''Making a Poem'' (1953). Early life and education As a Columbia Universi ...

Award from the

Poetry Society of America The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

. The opening poem, "The Firebombing," relates a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

pilot's memory of a night air raid on

Beppu is a city in Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. As of March 31, 2017, the city had a population of 122,643The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewer Joseph Bennett called it "one of the most important long poems written postwar." In the poem "Buckdancer's Choice," the narrator listens as his mother, dying of

emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alv ...

in an adjacent room, whistles an old fiddle tune. The poem first appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' for June 19, 1965, alongside "

Hapworth 16, 1924 "Hapworth 16, 1924" is a short story by the American author J. D. Salinger, the last original work published in his lifetime. It appeared in the June 19, 1965, edition of ''The New Yorker'', infamously taking up almost the entire magazine. It is the ...

", the last published story by J. D. Salinger.

References

External links

*Bennett, Joseph
"A Man with a Voice."
''New York Times'', February 6, 1966. 1965 poetry books American poetry collections National Book Award for Poetry winning works Wesleyan University Press books {{poetry-stub