Catalog

Shelby Stephenson, for Poet Laureate of North Carolina says: “Bill Griffin’s collection flows and grows with ease into more runs and swings as Nature makes its call, whether thrush or granite, seedling of shadow. Riverstory : Treestory is one special book, a hymn to growing things—and love, the soul awakening to join the self, singing with bird, mountain, and leaf.” Poet Pat Riviere-Seel notes: The reader may let go, but these poems will remain with you, a part of a larger story.”

Joyce Brown’s poems  take a remarkably fresh look at things we see (or perhaps, miss) every day, and they breathe a life into them that transforms them into experiences, lessons even that stay with us. In “Trip Home,” she writes: The death I’ve planned,/put up like a jar of peach preserves,/comes late in life, in bed, my dogs at hand,/the basement finally waterproofed/and clean/my piano tuned. I grieve,/but reach for God, and face the music/which is always Brahms.” The reader  is treated to thoughtfulness and craft like that throughout this book.

About The Hungry Man, Author and Educator Phillip McFarland writes: “West’s poetry is filled with pleasures: of varied subject matter; of fresh, apt imagery; of surprising yet always just diction; and a style without a feather of  padding—clean, concise, and accessible. And over it all hovers a poet’s heart filled with empathy and feeling. This collection provides us with moving experiences from first to last.”

“The first full-length collection by Joanne Lehman takes us into the nooks and founts of her imagination and memory where rural family members “kept their distance” and their wits and teach her the balanced nature of life deeply lived on “this  side of the river,” where, for “every seven sours” there are “seven sweets.” The book celebrates both loss and wonder-filled discovery in poems that sustain us all.”

Drawn from the entries from The Press’ first annual Poetry Contest, Quiet Diamonds, 2018 consists of forty-four poems from thirty-three poets. Diane Kendig, professor, poet, and author, says of the collection: “Quiet   Diamonds reminded me that the Greek origin of the word ‘anthology’ meant “a collection of flowers,” because the poems here are as varied as those in a botanical garden, as long-lasting, and bright as diamonds. Breathe and read deeply here.”

Len Herrick, former Poet Laureate of Fresno, writes: “Vanishing Point is a pure delight: each poem is full of grace and wonder about our relationship with the natural world, exploring astonishment and certainty, belief and memory, and damage and repair.” Award-winning poet Corrine Clegg Hales, says: “This is an extraordinary new collection by a poet who has mastered her craft and who speaks of life in this world with precision, grace, and often startling clarity.”

James is an award-winning poet and a Professor of  Literature whose work in this volume demonstrates the kind of art and craft that prompted the following remarks from American Poet Laureate Billy Collins: “James Scruton likes to stand on an observable fact and then reach for something beyond: a bit of science is often all he needs to launch these poems into their appealing orbits. Poet Dick Allen calls Scruton’s work, “meticulously crafted poems…over and over, ordinary things…are transformed.”

“Onachila’s work pulls the reader through a gamut of emotions, carefully weaving vivid imagery that paints pictures that either elicit tears or laughter. I am particularly drawn to Onachila’s uncanny ability to present pieces as memories that evoke not only past sentiments, but unfold as relevant even today. Simultaneously, Onachila is effortlessly cunning in connecting the reader to the “human condition” using subtle humor, often ending with a little.”

Leslie P. Borhaug, multi-genre author