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Shadows Deep, the sixth mystery featuring Private Investigator, Pete Stone, is now available at Meadowlark Press or your favorite bookstore. Set during 1939, Shadows Deep features Hollywood characters on their visit to Kansas for the premiere of the movie, Dodge City. Published by Meadowlark Press; cover photo by Dave Leiker. 
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 Thirst was the 2023 winner of the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award for Fiction. I just finished the book Thirst, by K.L. Barron. This book will wring you out and open your eyes. It is a novel that reveals a disturbing truth about human nature. The author deftly plants the reader in the middle of the relationships, and you fall in love with the characters. You will marvel at the suffering and the strength of a nomadic people who treat each day as another day to survive with only their customs and belief in Allah to hope for another day. Thirst casts a light into the dark shadows of persecution, prejudice, and hate. I am humbled by my ignorance and sheltered existence. Deb Irsik, Emporia  What are you reading? Help us lift and share the good news about Kansas literature. Tag your book loves and reviews on social media with #ReadLocalKS and submit here to be posted on the Kansas Authors Club website.
Member Ann Fell shares her thoughts on member Tammy Hader's book, Walking Old Roads: A Memoir of Kindness Rediscovered.  Using photos from her past, Tammy Hader guides readers through scenes of her childhood in search of a disappearing trait: the kindness—benevolence—once common in her life that seems to have dwindled as she approached middle age. Meticulous scrutiny that was polished through a career as an accountant is evident as she discusses memories shared with her aging mother. We bop from the past to her caretaker role in the present through prose that offers metaphors that range from analytical to delightful on nearly every page. As I read, I recalled similar times and events from my life. Hader’s writing connected, as I found parallels in my own childhood recollections of small town life in twentieth-century Kansas. Her revelations were pulled from trivial details that might have seemed unimportant to her younger self, but impacted her core values in sometimes surprising ways. Walking Old Roads is well worth reading. You’ll find a new friend in its author and benefit from her subtle invitation to scrutinize your own life. Hader offers bonuses too, including special family recipes that defined relationships in her past. I look forward to trying them in my own kitchen.  What are you reading? Help us lift and share the good news about Kansas literature. Tag your book loves and reviews on social media with #ReadLocalKS and submit here to be posted on the Kansas Authors Club website.
 Mark Landon Jarvis, Future Fugitives (prequel, Endless Tempest series) I nearly had several tiny heart attacks as some chapters ended. While not exactly cliffhangers, since the action/adventure propelled me along (and didn’t perturb me like most cliffhangers do), the situations were harrowing enough and the characters endearing enough to make me concerned for their well-being. (And I’m not even a Mom — okay, I’m a Dog Mom.) I dare you to read chapter one, “Sneet” — all of two pages plus one line long — then honestly tell me you’re not hooked; I’ll buy your copy of the book. Jarvis seamlessly switches between the voices of his co-protagonists (or are they?!) and their POV while cleverly juggling a dual timeline — and occasionally more than two. News-article type “context files” punctuate the drama with facts that are fascinating in and of themselves, at least the ones that are nonfiction, and the fictional tidbits seem so scientific they make Jarvis’s world even more real. The novel is not without humor, including the brutal honesty of children, parodied lists of medical side effects, or casual mention of tin hats (and the types of people who are inclined to wear them). There’s a refreshing and proper display of 2nd Amendment rights. There’s even a teensy bit of Sci-Fi Poetry, which I didn’t know was a thing (I’m somewhat ashamed to admit, as a sci-fi fan and someone who claims to write poetry). I truly cannot wait for this movie. #ReadLocalKS P.S. This was not — nor are any of my reviews — written with the help of AI, and I have been a fan of em dashes for as long as I can remember ... which is a long time, since I’m older than I look. As is one of the characters ... oh, wait, I don’t want to give any more away. Allow me add how glad I am to discover the ‘Endless Tempest’ series with this prequel; I’m going to go right out and buy the rest of the books this weekend! (Oh, and now that I’ve finally posted a review, I can eat some Tic Tacs. #IYKYK) (For those doing the ReadICT 2025 challenge: Fits categories #3, 7, 8, 9, and maybe even #6 & 10.) submitted by member Julie Ann Baker Brinn  What are you reading? Help us lift and share the good news about Kansas literature. Tag your book loves and reviews on social media with #ReadLocalKS and submit here to be posted on the Kansas Authors Club website.
 Member Paul Lamb received 2nd Place honors for his novel Parent Imperfect at the Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award luncheon held at the Woodneath Branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library in Kansas City on October 4, 2025. The award is sponsored by the American Association of University Women, Kansas City Chapter. Parent Imperfect was one of three finalists among 36 nominees.  Member Julie Ann Baker Brin shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Julie, for making the time to share the book you love.  A wonderful variety of slices of life Ms. Million Simmons has a gift for speaking in many voices. From one poignant story to the next she channels a school girl, a rural widower, a young bachelor, and other assorted characters. In some ways it is “light reading,” because of the short, easy to read stories, and in some ways it is not, as she tackles subjects such as racism and xenophobia, Alzheimer’s, and the death of loved ones. But she does so in heartfelt, engaging chapters that made me wish each short story were part of a novel. Many of these characters felt like family members, even in the short time it took to get to know them. And it is interesting to speculate which story elements might have been autobiographical, and which were purely imaginative. Either way, the details and descriptions made each experience real. A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
Member Julie Ann Baker Brin shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Julie, for making the time to share the books you love.  There’s a wild woman in these pages ... but I’m never quite sure if it’s the author herself, or the characters she so studiously scrutinizes ... and I sometimes felt like I was one of them. (We didn’t know each other at the time of publication, but we’ve been getting to know each other through Kansas Authors Club.) We certainly don’t need to ask Janice Northerns to “tell us what you really think!” In the tragedies and triumphs from the very first page, she is quick to expose irony and to call for justice—all with a flair for alliteration, internal rhyme, enjambment, and other poetic techniques. Yet no detail in life is too “unpoetic” for her pensiveness nor pen, no profession unworthy of reflection. It includes words you may not expect to find in a book of verse: proxy, Scooby Doo, bottomland, Mr. Pibb, unhobbled ... oh, there are more but I don’t want to ruin any surprises for you. And I realize this is not a poetic reaction, but it may be a telling one that I found myself saying “holy s***” several times after re-reading some pieces and having grasped their meaning—at least, I think I did. Most of the poems are free verse, but not all, and there’s a gem of sestina that’s an anniversary poem dedicated to her poet spouse—but absolutely not cheesy in any way, I promise. This award-winning debut is masterful and brilliant and I look forward to Ms. Northerns’ future works! #ReadLocalKS A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
Member Julie Ann Baker Brin shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Julie, for making the time to share the book you love.  Waterbound is Alchemy Wherein we are reminded: keratin is décor, music is grit, grief is a river, listening is scratchy, uncertainty is heroic, paper is safety, metamorphosis is mutiny, blood is a badge, love is a seastar, and light is light is light is light is light. And, of course, a word is magic. (I thought a book of poetry deserved a poetic response; thank you for indulging me. Full disclosure: I’ve known April for several decades, but first as a fellow volunteer for a lot of years, and only more recently as a poet. I’ve heard her claim—after leading many, many, many writing workshops and, oh by the way, publishing several chapbooks and this book and an entire journal/website—that she doesn’t know what she is doing. I laugh at that statement but at the same time know her modesty is sincere, and so is her passion for the craft—as well as mentoring and encouraging others within it, and building community around it. This was my second read through, and I look forward to the third+, because there were some things I didn’t understand—but it’s OK if I never do. There’s enough wisdom and experience and curiosity in here to be relatable, to make me respond out loud—in agreement, in empathy, in surprise. #ReadLocalKS) A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
Member Janice Northerns shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Janice, for making the time to share the books you love.  In FLINT & FIRE, published by The Word Works in 2019, Lisa Hase-Jackson delves into complicated family relationships between parent and child, spouses, and ex-spouses. Her poetry is spare and economical and yet packed with concrete details and imagery. The resulting work is personal, but the stories and the scenes are ones that readers can relate to. In “Letter to My Daughter,” Hase-Jackson describes a day spent fishing with her husband and young son, a day that ends with the birth of the daughter. She writes “It was the kind of idyllic day that makes / you think you’ve figured out something about life,” and includes evocative details like these: “We unloaded fishing rods and tackle, / the twitching stringed fish from the bed of the truck.” But even in this “idyllic” poem, hints of a crumbling marriage create tension, as the writer adds “and though your father drank, / it wasn’t much, his speech not too slurred.” That tension threads its way through most of the book. In “Vestigial,” the marriage has ended and she describes her relation to her ex-husband like this: “I am a cryptic text from your ex.” The text includes a picture of a tree that she knows he will not recognize, “though it looks like the / honey locust you planted.” She ends the poem by contrasting how little she means to him with the hopes they perhaps once shared: “a past / when life seemed as lucid, / as promising, / as sapling roots reaching / down through fertile soil.” While Hase-Jackson creates emotion-packed narratives, her work is also very much a poetry of place. In FLINT & FIRE we get the flavor of highways and roadside motels, of farms and cities, of Topeka and Kansas City and Albuquerque. We get the flavor of life. A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
Member Julie Ann Baker Brin shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Julie, for making the time to share the book you love. From Kansas, Not Dorothy: Essays and More from the Heartland by Amber Brejcha Fraley  My spouse had to listen to me gasp, laugh, and make other occasional involuntary sounds as I read this at bedtime over a few nights — pretty sure he could even hear me blush during some parts. Amber is a fearless writer who is not afraid to share the dirty details of hitting bottom ... and where she did it ... and who she did it with. But this is not a tragedy—oh no. Fiercely honest, this mini-memoir about growing up and personal growth is so relatable ... to anyone with a childhood and a family—even one as idyllic and Cleaver-family-like as my own (at least in the unrepressed portions of my memory; because you can’t have a family without dysfunction). Not to mention anyone who has ever been teased just because of where they live. Did I not mention it’s funny? OMG it’s so funny! Bonus materials include a few recipes whose accompanying notes/instructions are often chuckle-worthy, too. P.S. If you are lucky, you might also come across her chapbook ‘Poems from a Midlife Crisis,’ or find her work in other Great Plains area anthologies—bonus material for your brains and belly. #ReadLocalKS A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
Member Janice Northerns shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Janice, for making the time to share the books you love.  In KANSAS POEMS, Brian Daldorph evokes the moods, the places, and the seasons of his adopted home state. This strong collection was named a finalist for The Birdy Poetry Prize by Meadowlark Books, and reading it is like taking a guided tour through Kansas, both its present and its past. Daldorph often pinpoints a location with a title, such as “Pulpit Rock,” or “Cooper City,” and then paints a portrait of the place, and sometimes its inhabitants. In “Cooper City” we see one of the many small towns in Kansas that has seen better days: “Main Street’s a few hand-me-down stores.” Daldorph’s deft characterizations in poem after poem are sharp in detail but can also be read as types, such as this one in the last stanza of “Cooper City”: Zeke Haskins, Undertaker, with old Zeke in the window wondering days on end if he or Cooper City will go first. The many characters that people his narratives remind me of the wonderful SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY by Edgar Lee Masters. Daldorf is even able to do this by writing about what we don’t know, as in “Kansas City Vietnam War Memorial, April 2000.” Here he asks poignant questions about the dead that help us imagine their lives: “What was Felix Pacheco’s agony, / Jack Renfro’s last word [?]” “What happened to / the five Moores?” Daldorf also tackles his own life in this collection, writing of both love and loss. In one of my favorite poems in the book, “Drought,” he depicts in beautiful but brief description the beginning of rain on drought-stricken country and then surprises us by turning the poem into a metaphor for loss with the last two lines. I also love the dark, moody “Around Midnight,” where the “Last man walking/ in the sleeping world” describes his longing: I want it to be jazz but it’s cicada. I want it to be poetry but there are scant words. I want it to be love but know I’ll sleep alone. I am a fan of poetry that evokes longing and loss and several other excellent pieces in this vein are “Mason City, Kansas,” “Empties,” and the book’s closing poem, “Estate Sale” with its lovely, sad last lines: Outside her house, by 13th Street, the leftovers of her life: brass floor lamp, split cushions, old books and pictures, we through from last night’s rain. But KANSAS POEMS is not filled with doom and gloom. Daldorph writes of happier moments and moods in many of the poems, such as “First Date: Oak Hill Cemetery,” “Laurel Avenue,” and “the miracle.” He also gives us a lively series of historical pieces about the paleontologist Handel T. Martin, ending with another of my favorite poems, “Kansas Rhinoceros,” which is packed with vivid descriptions such as these: “you’d been tucked up since the Miocene” …. “Kansas Rhinoceros, broad as wide, / jaw big as a man’s shoulder.” …. “Wooden-hoop ribs stapled / round your empty hogshead belly.” …. and “I stare at your brick-toothed grin.” Daldorph’s tour through Kansas via his poetry will delight those who live in Kansas, as well as those who’ve never visited the Sunflower state, but this collection is much more than a regional book. At his best, Daldorph writes about what it means to be human, no matter what state we call home. A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
Member Julie Ann Baker Brin shares her reviews on Goodreads and has given us permission to share them here! Thank you, Julie, for making the time to share the book you love.  I was completely sold from the Table of Contents! And I wasn’t disappointed. But I could have maybe used a warning: for example, if you share the couch with someone while reading this, prepare to disturb them by shaking the furniture while attempting to mute your laughter throughout the entire second section. And then perhaps prepare to explain why your eyes are a bit weepy in the fourth. Ms. Unruh aptly represents many life stages and experiences throughout these hundred pages; even her childhood memories perfectly capture that particular logic, longing, and wisdom. Her imagination spans broad territory: from poodle skirts to Picasso, from Venus to Van Morrison, from coyotes to confessions—though her loyalty is to the Flint Hills. If no part of you knows the prairie, this has the magic to take you there; if any part of you can claim it, this has the magic to assure you that you are finally home. #ReadLocalKS A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.
A local donor has offered the following challenge to Kansas Authors Club members. Every #ReadLocalKS submission to our website from now through December 1 will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to Bookshop.org.   The following Kansas Authors Club members have pieces in the Summer 2025 issue of The Write Bridge: Amber Fraley, Annette Hope Billings, Barbara Waterman-Peters, Beth Gulley, Boyd Bauman, Brian Daldorph, Chuck Warner, Connlyn Sinclair, Iris Craver, Julie Ann Baker Brin, Keri Ault, Kerry Moyer, Kevin Rabas, Maureen Carroll, Marilyn Hope Lake, Peg Nichols, Ralvell Rogers, T.A. Dugan.
Order copies from Anamcara Press. Member Peg Nichols tells us to check out the latest issue of Coal City Review. Kansas Authors Club members published in this issue include Boyd Bauman, Perry Shepard, Peg Nichols, and Brian Daldorph. The issue also includes a review of The Set Up: 1984: Britain's Biggest Drug Bust, by Gretchen Cassel Eick  Coal City Review $10.00
Welcomes submisisons of poetry and short fiction. Send poetry and fiction to: Brian Daldorph, Poetry Editor University of Kansas English Department Lawrence, KS 66045 Please include SASE for reply. Dear Kansas Authors, If you know anyone who appreciates mystery, baseball, or a walk down historical Wichita's memory lane, I recommend Pete Stone detective stories from Meadowlark Press, Watermark Books, and your local library. If you desire an author visit, Kansan Mike Graves will engage your audience to suit your event. My All Hallows' Shadows review is available on GoodReads. You are welcome to read and share my review of Shadows & Sorrows on GoodReads. "Who dun it?" What is the motive, means, or opportunity? Carmaine Ternes, Kansas Authors Club Member Librarian, Author, Editor, Presenter "A child who reads will be an adult who thinks!" StoryCorps One Small Step     
GRINNELL, Kan. (KSNW) — When a tornado ripped through the small town of Grinnell last month, it left behind shattered homes, a ruined church, and the loss of another vital piece of the community — the school library.
In a social media appeal from the State Library of Kansas, the Moore Family Library and the Northwest Kansas Library System are calling on Kansans to help restock the shelves with gently used children’s picture books, chapter books, and young adult titles. The donations will be used to rebuild the school’s library and classroom collections ahead of the fall semester, when students return to class in a temporary building. Organizers say donated books won’t just fill shelves — they’ll help restore a sense of stability for children returning to school after disaster. Book donations can be sent to: Northwest Kansas Library System 2 Washington Square Norton, KS 67654 Thanks to member Mary-Lane Kamberg for bringing this notice to our attention. ​  "Was That Thunder? More Than a Boston Marathon Bombing Story" by Greg Kalkwarf If you desire a challenge or appreciate stories including family life, building relationships, developing fortitude, displaying sportsmanship, and ordinary people completing extraordinary feats, read "Was That Thunder? More Than a Boston Marathon Bombing Story" by Greg Kalkwarf. With experiences in Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas, Greg’s “journey through adversity,” is beyond typical marathon training. Kalkwarf’s professional connections and knowledge of baseball and distance running guided him as he faced a snowstorm during the Peak 2008 marathon. Elevation, rugged terrain, technical footing, and icy conditions challenged the athletes; nonetheless, teamwork helped them conquer the mountain. With a memory for dates and a keen sense of humor, Kalkwarf’s quest to support those truly facing adversity, he endorsed the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Underwearness, the Alzheimer's Association, and other organizations. Digesting various books, assorted publications, and inspirational biographies from the local library provided Greg with mental training. With an “I run so I can eat” attitude, Kalkwarf trained by running up and down Colorado mountains, parking garages, office stairs, and myriad courses in addition to Kansas and Nebraska rolling hills and plains despite inclement weather. Encountering a raging forest fire near his Colorado home, the sudden death of a family member, diagnosis of a fatal disease of another family member, a car collision, and a terrorist attack, Greg chose happiness over fear. With the unwavering encouragement of his wife Kirsta before, during, and after her two pregnancies, Greg was inspired and determined. Was it divine intervention that Greg “finished the Boston Marathon with a personal record of 3:56:03,” then minutes later, a loud boom cracked the sky? By finishing earlier than anticipated, Greg, his wife, and young children were spared. As a result of this tragedy, three died, a dozen lost limbs, hundreds were injured, and numerous PTSD victims, runners, and volunteers were emotionally scarred. Enduring the 2013 marathon was more severe than insanity drills, injuries, agony, and the effort balancing work, family, and training exercises. “Face your fears” and read "Was That Thunder? More Than a Boston Marathon Bombing Story" with 26.2 chapters focused on an incredible journey to move others forward. At the time of this publication, Greg completed ten marathons in Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and Nebraska. If he is not spending time with his family, running, hiking, or watching baseball, you can connect with Greg at www.gregkalkwarf.com. Respectfully submitted, Carmaine Ternes Librarian, Author, Editor, Presenter April 2025 Carmaine Ternes is a member of Kansas Authors Club. You can follow her reviews on Goodreads. What are you reading? Help us lift and share the good news about Kansas literature. Tag your book loves and reviews on social media with #ReadLocalKS and submit here to be posted on the Kansas Authors Club website.
 In Traci Brimhall’s latest poetry collection, LOVE PRODIGAL (Copper Canyon Press, 2024), she tackles topics such as the end of a marriage, the loss of her mother, the pandemic, and learning to live with chronic pain and illness. This list might lead you to think the book’s primary connective tissue is sadness and regret, but on the contrary (and as the title suggests), the poems are woven into a cohesive collection by love: love that is exuberant and celebratory, even as it acknowledges the messy business of heartbreak and death and pain. There are also pieces in the book about a new relationship, and these are—yes—love poems. As she writes about darker topics, Brimhall leans into the pain for what it can teach her about herself. The lesson over and over is that she is worthy, she is strong, she is capable of self-love. In “Cold, Crazy, Broken,” she explores her mistreatment in a previous relationship: “I’m sorry I held his breath between / my horns until he explained me to myself, said cold / said crazy said broken …” By the end of the poem, she has reframed these insults with her own powerful meanings: “I became the story / of me—cold as mint, crazy as holding my shadow’s hand / broken as the night when the new moon rises through it.” In “Why I Stayed,” the title implies remaining in a relationship, but the relationship it references is the speaker’s relationship with life. She writes “all summer I wanted // to die … Instead, I took 99 / of the peacock’s eyes, half the checking account, and left.” The explanation for staying comes in these closing lines: “I found // a thousand small pleasures that made me want to live, and / they were bridges, birdsong, strawberries, sunlight, and lambs.” LOVE PRODIGAL is infused with these “small pleasures” that make it a delight to read. One of Brimhall’s many strengths as a writer is her ability to startle and stun with fresh, inventive language. I underlined so many gorgeous phrases and lines like these:
I could list more examples, but they are best enjoyed within the context of the poems. Brimhall’s work can be witty and playful with nods to pop culture (“I Would Do Anything for Love, but I Won’t” and “Long-Distance Relationship as Alt Text” ) as well as poems inspired by other poets, like “Someday I’ll Love Traci Brimhall” (after Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong”). “Someday I’ll Love Traci Brimhall” encapsulates many of the themes in the book as she writes of accepting herself, her pain, and her family, including her mother. Her linguistic chops are also on full display: “I’ll boast ornament & scandal”; “I’ll crisis & satisfy”; “[I’ll] Unbutton / myself, let the shames scuttle out”; “I’ll bumble like a bee…”. The hardest person to love is often oneself, and though the conceit of this poem describes her love for Traci Brimhall as “nearly” here, in truth, the book is studded with a clear acceptance and celebration of the poet’s self. Perhaps that is the secret to the joy spilling out of these pages. I have loved Traci Brimhall (and her words) for about six years now, since I first read her poetry. Of her earlier books, COME THE SLUMBERLESS TO THE LAND OF NOD was my favorite, and as I awaited the publication of LOVE PRODIGAL, I wondered if this new book could measure up. I am happy to report that it does. If you, too, would like to love Traci Brimhall, it’s as easy as reading her poetry. #readlocalks Member Janice Northerns shared this review of member Traci Brimhall's book, Love Prodigal. What are you reading? Help us lift and share the good news about Kansas literature. Tag your book loves and reviews on social media with #ReadLocalKS and submit here to be posted on the Kansas Authors Club website.
Member Janice Northerns shares a review of member Michael Poage's Heart: Collected Poems 1975-2024.
HEART contains 14 books and spans almost 50 years, and it was wonderful to hear Mike read from it at Watermark Books recently! Here's my review of the book:
HEART: COLLECTED POEMS 1975-2024 by Michael Poage offers a rare opportunity to trace a poet’s evolution over time. Much of his work is spare and philosophical but still capable of profound impact, as in this early poem from BORN, his 1975 collection: The First Person with Skin The fog she thought would cover her bones was only a tongue, a door. In these few short lines, Poage contrasts the expectation of protection with the discovery of vulnerability and openness. I enjoyed finding another poem much later in the book (from 2001’s GOD WON’T OVERLOOK US) that reminded me of “The First Person with Skin”: Slipping Into Something Comfortable She took off her clothes. It was that simple. In this later poem, the subject is at ease in her own skin. These pieces may seem only tangentially related, but one of the delights of reading Poage’s collected works is finding poems published many years apart that speak to one another—each enriched by the conversation. These pieces also illustrate the author’s knack for making his titles do much of the work; the titles are the key to understanding these two poems. Poage’s poetry is lyrical but features plenty of concrete detail and vivid description, with poems set in varied locations, including Kansas, Bosnia (where he spends time teaching each year) and Gaza. Two of my favorite pieces evoked radically different emotions. A poem late in the book, “a swarm of bees”, which is dedicated to George Floyd, chilled me to the bone. The poem is literally about a video of a swarm of bees, but the figurative meaning as we interpret it in the context of George’s Floyd’s tragic case resonates deeply. The bees are “moving barely enough / to notice.” But the speaker notices “the sound. a / grinding, slow business / cooking above your head.” From there the poem builds to a powerful and haunting conclusion. Another favorite, “Loose Change” stirred happier feelings. The poem describes a coffee date in a book store between a woman and the poem’s speaker. The language is erotically charged throughout, from these early lines—“you came up behind me. / I felt the light touch / of your breasts through / your blouse and my shirt / against my back” to the closure: “you slipped your hands / into my front pants pockets. / You were not searching / for nickels or dimes.” As might be expected in a collection that spans fifty years and includes fourteen books, these poems cover a wide range of subjects. There is much more to discover than I have mentioned here. Don’t be intimidated by the length of the book (900+ pages). You can start at the beginning and read the book chronologically, or you can dip in at any point and emerge with core samples from different eras of Michael Poage’s poetry. Both methods yield rich rewards. #readlocalks |
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