SEEDED LIGHT: Official Publication, January 2010

I am pleased to note, as the first full week of the new year begins, that the release of my latest collection of poems, Seeded Light (Turning Point Books, 2010), also officially occurs. To mark the publication of this new book, I offer a sample work from the volume. I have selected “Nocturnal: Fayette County, West Virginia” as a brief piece representing a number of poems throughout the collection that contribute to a pattern of imagery relating to one of the book’s various central motifs—in this case, alluding to the title phrase of “seeded light,” which also echoes a Pablo Neruda quote (The immense deserted night set up its formation / of colossal figures that seeded light far and wide.) serving as an epigraph to open the book.

This theme continues visual elements located in the volume’s cover art work, Luminous Tree, a painting by Charles Burchfield and part of the permanent collection in the Brauer Museum of Art, from which the wonderful cover images for issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review are routinely chosen and accompanied by astute commentary from Gregg Hertzlieb, the museum’s director and curator. Those cover images can be seen through links at the Valparaiso Poetry Review list of back issues.

Readers are encouraged to click on the poem to view a magnification of the text. Seeded Light is available from online book suppliers, Amazon or Barnes and Noble. As well, information for ordering special signed and numbered copies at a discount price can be found in the blog sidebar.