No Place like Poetry for the Holidays

Stressed by Christmas shopping? Tired of hearing Mariah Carey on the radio? Thinking of jumping off a bridge with George Bailey? Time to de-stress with a little poetry from Peter White Public Library.

For lovers of history, there’s Michael Korda’s new examination of soldier poets in World War I. Muse of Fire (840.3 KO) follows the lives of five of the most seminal writers of the Great War–from Rupert Brooke to Wilfred Owen. Weaving together history, biography, and poetry, Korda masterfully creates a harrowing portrait of life in the trenches through the eyes of these battle-bruised bards.

In the introduction to her new collection of poems, White Earth Ojibwe poet Marcie R. Rendon says, “My writing of these dream-song poems validates for me that our ways of life and of seeing the world are not lost; rather, we, as writers and visionaries, can carry the practice of dream songs forward to and for new generations.” Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millenium (811.6 RE) contains lyric visions of stars reflected in water like “a motionless mirror / of the full moon sky” to a “buffalo woman giving birth to a thunder nation.” This is a collection that celebrates ancestors and looks forward to their unknown descendants.

For the past three years, Peter White Public Library has sponsored the 3-Day International Chapbook Contest, judged by such acclaimed poets as Cindy Hunter Morgan, Pulitzer Prize-winner Diane Seuss, and Diane Glancy. The winners selected by Seuss this past year all riffed on the theme of “The Human Animal” in ways that will make you rethink your understanding of what it means to be a living, breathing creature.

Kathleen Heideman’s A Brief Report on the Human Animal (811.6 HE), Seuss’s selection for third place, is a compendium of lyrics about all that is right and wrong with humanity. In a voice that is both conversational and confrontational, Heideman holds up a mirror for readers, forcing us all to see that each of us are sometimes “a disaster declaration waiting to happen.” Follow this poet’s words to the cliff’s edge, and then jump.

Animal Heart (811.6 MO) by Sam Moe, Seuss’s choice for second place, weaves together a collection of intricate forms, from sestinas to prose poems, creating a complex tapestry of human struggles and strivings. Tap into this book, and you will lose and find yourself as saints “pour / [d]azzling healing liquids over” you and you “[d]rown before being reborn / as willows.” This collection is both heart rending and heart mending.

Finally, Erika Kielsgard’s Lamprey ((811.6 KI), Seuss’s winner of the 3-Day International Chapbook Contest, forces readers to reimagine not only the lamprey, but also history and ecology. Through the lamprey’s nine eyes, the poems in this collection make us wonder whether humans are the invasive species, destroying every ecosystem we inhabit. This book will colonize your mind.

Check Peter White Public Library’s website (www.pwpl.info) in January to find out the winners of the 2024 3-Day International Chapbook Contest, judged by poet Diane Glancy.

By Martin Achatz

Adult Programming Coordinator