Two new collections of poems by the late A.R. Ammons (’49), alumnus and former Wake Forest poet-in-residence, have been published by small presses in Kentucky and eastern North Carolina.

“The Mule Poems'” is a limited edition chapbook of seven poems hand-stitched to a letterpress cover published by R.A. Fountain in Fountain, N.C. Ammons told an interviewer in 1980 that when he was a young boy, he wished to “grow up to be rich enough to buy a nice mule — I used to dream of having this frisky, wonderful mule, and it seemed to me the greatest thing in the world would be to be able to own one.” Mules came to be a poignant symbol of the old farming ways of life.

Broadstone Books of Frankfort, Ky., has published a revised and expanded edition of “North Carolina Poems” originally published in 1994. “I am delighted to bring back this favorite work by a master American poet in this new edition,” says publisher Larry Moore. “At a time when the term ‘traditional values’ is so abused and corrupted, it is essential that we be reminded of the truth of those values in such simple, quiet, elegant verse.”

Poet and alumna Emily Herring Wilson (MA ’62) writes about her friendship with A.R. Ammons in the Spring 2011 issue of Wake Forest Magazine.