The Clock of Moss

Judson Crews

The Clock of Moss is a work of the Southwest, which Crews introduces to us in its ancient setting, land that “has altered …[but] it seems never altered.” The first section of the book, “In the Explorer’s Hand,” introduces the natural world and the human communities of the land, from Penitentes to farmers to Native Americans. The poems arrive through a range of characters and the landscapes they inhabit—characters who would be at home in the work of Faulkner or O’Connor except, as one of them says, “…naked with a / bandolier and a six-shooter/ You would know it was out/ West.” First published in 1983, The Clock of Moss chronicles the changing of the Southwest and the often difficult journeys of its people.

A sample poem from the book

It was assumed a God-head

Decided to get involved

to intervene. It was two Indians

And a white man. And a child

from nobody knew where-from

There was a rainbow that circled

the whole sun. No rain

Between a white man and two

Indians and a child—their old car

That broke down, radiator boiling

two flat tires, a busted axle

A rattlesnake bit three of them.

When they found the little girl

Tania was sleeping, her braids

in tangles, her britches soiled