Poetry

In The Importance of Elsewhere Bradley maintains an exemplary standard of literary excellence. His diction is muscular and lean, artfully absent even the slightest hint of carelessness. Whether working in free verse or executing the rigorous demands of the sonnet or rhymed triplet, Bradley writes with the consummate poetic skill of a master. —Larry D. Thomas, Texas Poet Laureate 2008  More
 Good Article on Bradley:
 
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Bradley_(poet)

Read a review in The American Book Review
another review: Yanaguana Literary Review 

Read a poem from The Importance of Elsewhere

 Places We Could Never Find Alone is an accomplished and remarkably varied collection in which the perennial themes of time, love and death—especially love, explored most movingly in the beautiful "Epithalamion"—are juxtaposed with brief, Hardyesque narratives and a sly vein of satire.     

—Ken Watson, author of Imagined Corners: a Multicultural Anthology of Contemporary Poetry 

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Divided into sections that allude to the architectural features of a mosque, Ellery’s new collection is a delightful embrace of place, conflict, history, and philosophy. Enter The Big Mosque of Mercy with the open mind of a seeker; leave knowing more of the peace and hope and beauty that poetry can offer. —Dave Kuhne, editor of descant

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 With precision of detail, exquisite sound-sense, and depth of genuine care and knowing, Charles Inge welcomes us to a place in Texas he and his wife Dominique love best. And with the magic of words he makes it ours, too. —Naomi Shihab Nye, author of You and Yours and other collections of poetry 


 Breakfast at Denny's is a collection of poetry you should not miss. Jim McGarrah is a first-rate writer of prose (see The End of an Era from Ink Brush Press), and a writer of wonderful poetry that is at once tightly crafted and easy to read. He is the author of two books of poetry, Running the Voodoo Down, which won a book award from Elixir Press, and When the Stars Go Dark, which became part of Main Street Rag’s Select Poetry Series. He has also written a memoir of the Vietnam War entitled A Temporary Sort of Peace (Indiana Historical Society Press) that won the Eric Hoffer Award for Legacy Nonfiction, and The End of an Era, an account of life in the American counter-culture during the 1960s and 1970s. Jim McGarrah dedicated Breakfast at Denny's to the late Jack Myers, Texas poet laureate and professor of creative writing at SMU.

As with the poems of Donne, Herbert, and Hopkins, the artistic meditations in J. Pittman McGehee's collection are first and foremost outstanding poems; next they are lyrical and religious—and much else as well. Some are humorous in a quiet ways, others illustrate connections between people and among living creatures. These are poems that will touch you, instruct you without being didactic, charm you into reading the rest of them, and leave you knowing you will return to this volume to read again and again for the wonder and the magic of the words.


 No End of Vision, an exquisite collection of photographs and poems by two poets laureate of Texas: Karla K. Morton, with her stark and beautiful photographs and Alan Birkelbach, with his resonant responses that play riffs on those photographs. Photos and poems speak to each other and to us not just about the landscapes of Texas but about ways of seeing beauty in the familiar and about what art is. This collection is a love letter to Texas from two exceptionally talented poets. —H. Palmer Hall, author of Foreign and Domestic and Into the Thicket  
press release for this book
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 a guest giving way like ice melting by Steve Schroeder and Sou Vai Keng

     "This elegant and beautiful little book helps us understand some of the eternal questions—and some transitory ones as well." —Paul Friedrich, University of Chicago   

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In a dim sum of the day before Steven Schroeder "constantly reminds us that nature and beauty persist in contemporary China, and that dogs wanders, rats scavenge, cats sit and seem to think and the rain pounds the cityscape. a dimsum of the day before does connect after all to the Chinese tradition of nature poetry." —Reid Mitchell, Cha 

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Jan Seale's The Wonder Is

"Thirty plus years’ worth of poems deserves a hurrah. Some—notably 'Diana the Huntress Goes for Her Mammogram' and 'I Cut Open a Papaya/ My Husband Reads His UFO Journal'—are especially delightful in their transgression of our daily norms."

—Maxine Kumin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; author of Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010
              read a review

Nape is Jan Seale'outstanding new collection of poetry. She is the Texas poet laureate for 2012.

read a review

read one of the poems        


Dreaming Sam Peckinpah, a unique collection of poetry written by W.K. Stratton that will surprise and delight.

A finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award in Poetry

read one of the poems 

This is by far Chuck Taylor's best collection of poetry yet, and he has published some first-rate books of poetry. Connie Lane Williams wrote that in these poems, Taylor "speaks from the mystical heart within the heart, seeking spiritual truths in our secular time, and using a revolutionary new verse form."

Human Resources is a collection of brutal honesty shot through with longing. Jesse Waters keeps a close eye fixed on the personal while his poems wrestle history, faith, the darkness and absurdity of the human condition. Waters is a wonderful poet—at turns funny and heartbreaking—and certainly one to watch for the long haul. —Julianna Baggott, author of Compulsions of Silk Worms and Bees   More

Drawing upon cultural myths to explain his personal and family myths, R. Scott Yarbrough writes poems that will touch you with their lyrical intensity, will engage you with vivid anecdotes, will offer emotional experiences made vivid by a masterful use of images, and will leave you with feelings and ideas worth pondering.

read a review                   

another review

read a review from CCR

read Carol Reposa's review in The Evansville Review


John Milkereit’s poems sing with the free-wheeling voice of the very finest of performance poetry, yet they also gift his readers with the delight of well-wrought similes and metaphors that pleasantly surprise, always entertaining and urging the reader on, widening our reality with his unique imaginative visions.  —Dave Parsons, 2011 Texas Poet Laureate

“The first note is almost struck…” says poet John Milkereit as he ferries us into a world resting on an amalgamated deconstruction of our times—movies and movie stars, French kickboxing, designer jeans, cheese snacks, meth and modern art—which he uses to invent a surprisingly rich and gloriously modern edifice.            —Sarah Cortez, Councilor, Editor, Goodbye, Mexico: Poem of Remembrance
Robin McCorquodale did not survive to see her book of remarkable poetry in print. This is a special memorial edition of her work. Sarah Cortez wrote the introduction.

Alan Gann, Adventures of the Clumsy Juggler
"The Juggler of the book’s title can be viewed as a literal image—a performer—a busker you might say--but the image is even more effective as a shared metaphor, many of the poems describing scenes we understand far too well.  This shared metaphor is where this book gets its strength—from Alan Gann telling us his experiences, letting us learn with him along the way (and practice)—and, then, finally, letting us all ask retrospective questions."

      Alan Birkelbach, Texas Poet Laureate 2005


Dede Fox, Postcards Home
Fox’s poetic canvas is vast, deftly painted with an array of dazzling colors.  The subjects of her poems are as intriguingly eclectic as her spot-on allusions. She writes of family, travel, the joy of perception and reflection, the arts, and the facets of her Jewish heritage, and she does so with an ease of diction which belies the consummate poetic skill subtly manifest in each and every poem, “...refracting / light into spectral colors.”  
—Larry D. Thomas, Texas Poet Laureate  

More about Dede Fox here:
          http://dedefox.com/

David Bowles’ words are fresh and mythical, with voices of Old Mexico and Samurai and ancient Greece that often declare death to be just another stepping stone in life's journey. “When wounds are healed by love,” he says, “The scars are beautiful.” These are powerful poems to haunt and enthrall, connecting us beyond time. Prepare for a new voice. Prepare to be left wanting more.  —Karla K. Morton, 2010 Texas Poet Lauerate 

Click here for a press release