After English Teacher Andy Stallings’ first year teaching at Deerfield Academy, he travelled to visit his family in Mississippi, where he sat down one day and wrote the first 50 poems of his latest book, Paradise. The book was released on April 15, 2018 and is his second work published by Rescue Press. However, he explained that the process of writing the book was one to which he was unaccustomed. Stallings described his new book as “a broad representation of myself, my family and the world and everything that I experience.” Paradise is a book largely drawn from Mr. Stallings’ own experience at Deerfield, especially during his first year here. Mr. Stallings explained that the tools he used in the classroom during his first year of teaching at Deerfield influenced his style, changing the way he wrote. This sudden shift in creative process started when he began starting his classes with a ten-minute free write. He reflected back on that teaching choice and said, “The free writing process opened up my ability to write quickly.” He was therefore able write many poems in one sitting, as he did that day in Mississippi. Mr. Stallings said, “If it works with students, I’m willing to use it for myself.” As for what the Deerfield community can expect for Mr. Stallings in the future, this is his second publication and he won’t be putting down the pen anytime soon. Mr. Stallings affirmed that he intends on continuing his career as a writer. He said, “It is such a part of life and thinking. If I’m writing, to say, stop [writing] — I can’t imagine doing it!”
Paradise
by Andy Stallings
(unpublished)
As I stood looking out at our
hundred yards of bobbing net
near the Ugashik River’s
mouth, net which we couldn’t
tend till the opening was
officially called, but which
the river seals could tend as they
wished, Barnwell came out
from the Quonset hut with
a rifle, which he handed to me,
instructing me to shoot
the seals if I could, so I knelt
on the sand, and aimed the rifle,
and shot. Ice of morning,
bumper crop of dawn.
The house on the bluff
belonged to one uncle,
the house by the pond to
another. Not a double life,
she insisted, but two lives.
One in text, one in body.
As opposed to word and
experience, perpetually
misaligned but each
sufficient. Out in surf city,
approaching the false
horizon. But anywhere will
do if the student is right. The
student of light.