Cats, Coffee, and Comfort
There is deep magic in Cristel Orrand’s Heartwood. The book is broken into two parts. Poetry and Prose. The prose is fiction that reads like memoir. It makes me want to sit down with Cristel, drink coffee, and hear more. Her poetry makes me listen because she understands both the nature of man, and the nature of nature. The book is broken into two parts. Both parts are heartwood.
Amalgamist Books. 2017. 69 pages.
Eric Chandler is a former F-16 fighter pilot. He endured three deployments to Iraq and one deployment to Afghanistan. Eric offers us that higher view of our earth bound lives. His gift of focusing on what is important to know, what is best to ignore, and what is important to share, is given to us poem by poem. This is Eric Chandler’s first book of poetry. Bravo Zulu.
Middle West Press LLC. 2017. 106 pages.
This collection of war poetry by Randy Brown leverages both humor and haiku. The author does his best to demystify the process and jargon of war. The broken places in my own mind are stronger and calmer now that I’ve read this book of war poetry. Thank you, Randy Brown.
Middle West Press LLC. 2015. 81 pages.
I recently purchased the 60th Anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s masterpiece. This trade paperback edition contains additional materials about the author and his writings. The novel itself is 158 pages. This book is a gift from the past, and a warning to all of us about the future. Ray Bradbury remarked that he had written a book about the future, and he often spent his time trying to prevent it. Cherish people. Cherish books.
Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. 2013. 249 pages.
The poetry of Catherine Clark-Sayles allows us intimate access into two parts of her life – her daily practice of medicine and her observations as a skilled poet. Dr. Clark-Sayles’s book of poetry begins with her mil-brat childhood, progresses to her time at medical school, continues with her daily acts of practicing medicine, and ends with her and her patients coping with death. Death rounds out the four corners of this excellent first book of poetry.
Tebot Bach. 2008. 61 pages.