Before long, he was able to support himself as a poet and poetry teacher. The Bowman and Gordon Gray professorship, which honors excellence in undergraduate teaching, reflects his success in the classroom, and his 1988 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature testifies to his success on the printed page. Many of the poet's verses, old and new, are autobiographical in that they build on his experiences as a boy, young construction worker, outdoorsman, husband and father. If I can change something for the good of a poem, I will do it. What you are trying to preserve is emotional truth.
Subjects vary widely.
The well-fed do not wade this low river. Besides McLaurin, Seay dedicates poems to writers Barry Hannah, Elizabeth Spencer and Roy Blount, sons Page and Josh and others.