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Hank Hudepohl is an American poet and the founder / publisher of Pine Row Press. He spent his childhood in Kentucky, attended Harvard, and served in the US Navy as an officer on an aircraft carrier. Later, he earned an MFA from Hollins University in Virginia, where he also taught creative writing. He has published four books of poetry: The Journey of Hands in 2008, Riverbank in 2022, Praise Poems in 2023, and Heights in 2024. His work has appeared in literary journals and magazines, and has been featured on the NPR show The Writer’s Almanac numerous times. He now lives with his family in Northern Kentucky. Contact
order The Journey of Hands
"These poems are about awareness and its transforming powers. They are as trustworthy as the facts that give rise to them, and as priestly as the blessings they bestow. They sanctify, measure by slow measure."
--James Baker Hall, former Poet Laureate of Kentucky
order Riverbank
The poems in Riverbank are about the universal themes of innocence and experience. Poems in this collection have been featured in literary magazines and journals, and read on the NPR show The Writer's Almanac.
"How can a boy / Know when his life is about to change forever?"
-from "At the South"
order Praise Poems
Praise Poems are from a place of quietude and prayer. They are a glimpse into a meditation on belonging, and they are intended to be heard with the heart.
"When you have the eyes to see,
Your oneness with humanity,
You will not put yourself above,
Your brother's or your sister's love."
Today's selected poem from Heights:
Stubborn
My stubbornness led me as a child
into a few tight corners
where I could not escape
an old-fashioned parental whuppin’.
Stubborn enough to stand ground
against all reason, seize
a primal urge hot as coal fire,
to say no as if my life depended on it.
Stubborn enough to hold my breath
beyond the body’s limits, to deny
all instincts, to see my vision turn starry
and dark, then pass out on the floor.
Yes, that really happened
more than once, and while I’m on it,
I might as well say, Mother,
I love you and I could still hear you
though I lay unconscious in the kitchen,
your chatting on the phone with a friend,
“Henry’s made himself pass out again”
as you casually stepped over me
to tend to whatever boiled on the stove.
Hank Hudepohl / 2024
New book forthcoming! More updates in Spring 2024.
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