to teach
that words gained strength
from the quiet silence
of what had been first
trimmed and cut away.
“Tools of the Trade”
Karl Plank is the author of The Grace of Falling Things: Poems (Grayson Books, 2024). His poetry has appeared in journals such as Notre Dame Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Zone 3, New Madrid, Tahoma Literary Review, Presence, and Spiritus, and has been featured on Poetry Daily. A past winner of the Thomas Carter Prize for nonfiction (Shenandoah, 1993) and a Best of the Net (2022 and 2025) Pushcart Prize nominee (2025), he is the J.W. Cannon Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Davidson College where he taught from 1982-2023.
Contact: kaplank@davidson.edu
Karl Plank 
William and I recently spent the evening with David and Lauren. David told us about your poem that is something about ‘I thought I would go first’ and we went over to his new home and read it together. So tender and so real. Where may I get a copy of it?
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