Arkansas Press Kit

a poetic celebration the Wonder State

6.16.2025

Okay folks this is a long one.. Not fully finished but give it a good faith try.
My goal here is not so much to make art --- but to educate and boast.

This should make more sense to folks from Arkansas, but I would like to hear your thoughts. What works, what drags, what leaves you utterly befuddled.

LOCATION

We are
as pertains to place
Down and right of center,
the north-west corner of the South
the buckle of the belt--
the “True Grit” edge of civilization.

We are
(as pertains to shape)
a malformed rhombus, or a
postage stamp
left in the wash, with a squiggly edge.


We are,
270 miles wide our widest point
240 miles tall, from bottom rung to top —However,
our eastern border, which (generally speaking)
follows the middle of the meandering Mississippi, carves
six hundred miles of serpentine shoreline. Go figure!

*In and odd state of affairs, the Original middle-of-the-Mississippi has moved, since Arkansas became as state in 1836. The border has not. There are now parts of AR that you cannot get to from Arkansas… and parts of both Tennessee and Mississippi on our side of the viver.


GEOLOGY AND FEATURES

We are, digest style --
a drainage ditch set between
the Ozark and Ouachita highlands, with
oodles of pine trees,
lots of loam---The Land
of Snakes and Waterfalls.

We are
(as pertains to colors on a map)
56 percent forrest green,
41 percent copper farmland,
the rest given to black-water bayous
and yellow Dollar Generals.

We are
as pertains to dirt,
chert,
dolomite and crystal muck,
karstic sandstone and stone,
loblolly dander and clay
Mississippi paste and
flotsam

We are
as pertains to crops,
rocks,
conifers and cotton
sorghum and soy -- Boy!

The nation's leading producer of rice,
Nice!

We are, as pertains to water,
wet.
beginning with the sky.
After that, two-point-one percent of our total acreage
is covered in some form of
liquid ambience

Including:
Our namesake “the Arkansas”
stretched like a belt from ten to four,
linking crisp Colorado to the
muddy Mississippi.

We are
plummeting cascades--
Over two hundred listed in the Tim Ernst Waterfall Guide
with Hemmed in Hollow at 208 feet, boasting the longest plunge this side of the Mississippi.

We are sundry swamps
and the Bayou Bartholomew
(slowly flowing into Louisiana, the longest bayou in the world!)

We are the Springs:
Siloam, Mammoth and Eureka
and that ever boiling cauldron of healing health,
the HOT, enjoyed by Babe Ruth
as he soaked his whiskey soaked gams.

We are Lakes,
dammed, original and oxbow
brimming with Brim, Bass, and Crappie

Rivers
Red, White, and Black
rimming with trout!

River
the Mississippi
with Cats, the size of an American Bulldog
or a ninety-pound Hope watermelon.

We are
the floatables:
Cossatot and Caddo
Mulberry, Spring
Ouachita, Big Piney, Little Piney
and ---The blood of our bones,
America’s first National River,
the ever wild and pulsing
Buffalo!

We are, in the same confluence,
rainbow trout and gator gar,
not to mention -- gators.
We are Lost Valley elk
and whitetail deer
at the ratio of one deer per every three residents,
or two, when including lawn art.

We are feral Hogs (both real and appropriated).
We are butterflies and vultures,
bats, gnats, and eagles,
home of the highly sought-for “Lord God” bird

---

DESCRIPTORS

We are known historically as:

the Bear State
(home to 50 thousand Louisiana Black bears in 1920s)

the Toothpick State
(A low cost double-edged sheath knife)

the Rackensack State
(a burlesque synonym for hillbilly accouterments)

the Wonder State
the Land of Opportunity
the birthplace of Bill and his brother Rodger.

The Natural State,
The AR that is not Arizona.
The kan-saw that is not Kansas.

We are:
One state park for every week of the year
Eighty-Nine Natural Areas,
Two-point-five National Forests,
Eight National Parks and/or Monuments
Thirteen Welcome centers
One
voice of Kim Williams.

We are
London and Paris
Holland and England
Houston and Dallas

Turkey Scratch and Booger Hollow
Toad Suck and Flippin,
Possum-Grape and Weiner.

Jericho, Jerusalem, Siloam Springs
Bethlehem, Bethesda, Canaan,
Damascus, Palestine, Patmos,
Egypt, Nirod, and Nebo

(The latter the mountain where Moses looked down on the Promised Land)


We are,
ten thousand box-white churches,
pressed into plain and holler by missional Baptists,
Church of Christ Campbellites,
and those circuit-riding Methodists

We are
Mountainesque cathedrals sporting grapes,
Benedictine monks making hot sauce and beer.

We are beehive hairdos and purple hair,
Synagogues both red and blue,
an urban Mosque or two,
nd one guy I know as a Buddhist.

We are the interstate Goldilocks three--
with Baby church, Mamma church and Pappa

We are myriad non-Denoms:
New life, New Hope, New city, New Newness

We are brimstone and fire, dry counties and bingo
Male-catholics and governors eating oysters in a off grid rite

---

We are
home
to the Mighty Presence.

----

WEATHER

We are
as pertains to weather
Drunk.

Make that hot, dank, or divine
sometimes in close succession.

MUSIC AND CULTURE

We are
Mountain-View pickers
on the courtyard square
The bluest of the blues
in Helena.

We are
Five Feet High and Rising ---
a Rockabilly-Gospel-Hootenanny
with Ireland and Congo in a barn dance reel.

Rosetta Tharpe and Johnny Cash
Al Green and Iris Dement,
Glen Campbell and Louis Jordan,
Sonny Boy Williams, Levon Helms, Jimmy Driftwood,
Cedell Davis, Black Oak Arkansas, Arkansauce,
that chick from Evanescence--
and by adoption, Monastic Troubadour
John Michael Talbot.

TAKE THAT WORLD!



COMMERCE

We are, as pertains to commerce
the little engine that could--
Home to the USA’s largest private
employer, and world's largest retailer --

Add to that,
the many businesses that do business with WalMart--

Add to that,
Tyson Chicken, Hunt trucks,
Dillards, Dassault Falcon Jet inteiros

Add to that,
Ranger, SeaArk, Havoc, Duracraft, Legencraft, Xpress, Excel, Veranda, Vexus, WeldCraft, and Double XX Boats.

(some people like to fish)

MISCELLANEOUS

We are diamonds percolating up in craters
Delta Dirt sweet taters,
mothers sporting waders

We are mudding, duck blinds and deer camp,
people yelling in yell county
Children schooled in the art of Pig Sooie

We are ghosts at the Crescent Hotel
Lights in the Gurdon swamp

We are
the justice of (Hanging) Judge Parker
Home to True GRIT, and the US Marshals.

We are, the World's shortest Saint Patrick Parade
And former home to Minor league Baseball summer camp
and hot-tub getaway for Al Capone.

We are Bentonville,
Mountain-Bike Capital of the World.
Alice Walton buying art on the sly for decades
until her collection sprouted into the
that is Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

We are
James Beard BBq is an off-road shack
Stoby's Cheese Dip,
Rhoda’s Famous Hot Tamales,
Bulldog Strawberry Shortcake,

the people of Gillette
eating racoons on purpose.

We are Elvis and his haircut at the Fort.
the Beatles landing for emergency fuel and and casting monuments

We are glory, we are shame--
entrenched Jim Crow challenged by the courage our Little Rock Nine
and so many others.

We are home of the stadium burning
University Of PIne Bluff Golden Lion Marching band and drum corp

We are neighbors learning to be neighbors

We were the birthplace of Anna, my third daughter

We Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the sound of pirates

We Are A.R.

We are tired of my poem ---

We are

home.