If you are thinking of buying this book, it's important to order it during this 8 week period, as Finishing Line Press determines how many copies to print based on how many copies are sold during the pre-publication time.
To whet your appetite, here's the title poem:
Life in the Holocene Extinction
I complete the day’s tasks
of e-mails and reports and other paperwork.
I think about which species
have gone extinct
in the amount of time it takes
to troll the Internet.
I squash a mosquito.
He drives to the grocery store
to pick up the few items he needs
for dinner: shark from a distant
sea, wine redolent of minerals from a foreign
soil. He avoids the berries
from a tropical country with lax
control of chemicals.
As she packs up her office,
she thinks about habitat loss,
those orphaned animals stranded
in a world of heat and pavement.
She wishes she had saved
more money while she had a job.
She knows she will lose the house.
She wonders what possessions
will fit into her car.
This poem first appeared at the wonderful online journal, Escape Into Life. I encourage you to go here to see the wonderful image of a fiber collage that's paired with the poem.
In many ways, this poem encapsulates all the themes of the book, as a title poem should do. But it leaves out a key element: this collection also explores what elements of modern life give us hope in the face of all the stresses and calamities we face both individually, as a culture, and as a planet.
It will probably come as no surprise that the poems explore spirituality as one of those elements that helps us hope and helps us cope.
So, order now, while it's on your mind--avoid the last minute rush! And order some extra copies--poetry makes a great gift!
To order, go here.
No comments:
Post a Comment