Bøger udgivet af Finishing Line Press

Patric Pepper's Everything Pure as Nothing is a selection from his poems written about snow over a 35 year period. Snow, the central metaphor of the collection, engenders a wide range of emotions and understandings. For Pepper, snow in all its elusiveness and innocence occasions joy and sadness, wonder and bewilderment, love and physical pain, indifference and engagement, and a yearning for faith in the face of true skepticism. The snow of this small accessible volume is emblematic of both human and absolute reality in an unpretentious and pleasing way. The collection begins with poems written as late as 2015, and then surprisingly skips back through the years to poems written in the 1980s. The work ranges from free verse to sonnets, ultra-talk to unadulterated verse, rhyme and meter to simple conversation. Pepper demonstrates a mastery of his forms, which are never rigid or lockstep, but rather supple and contemporary. A sensitive reader will notice how his content is supported by his chosen forms in a functional and agreeable manner. This is a good read you won't want to miss if you are interested in the possibilities for breadth and depth in contemporary poetry.

A poet's voice as it develops has a striking effect on those lucky enough to be exposed to his creations on a regular basis. The poetic voice must be nurtured, encouraged and given room to grow and strengthen. It will become clear to the readers of Approaching Poetry that Mark Grinyer has spent years carefully tending the gift he has been given to reach others by his choice of topics and his use of language to express his thoughts. Creative thought and vibrant language characterize this new and compelling chapbook! The reader's experience is sure to be intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying. Enjoy the writings of this author and come back for more!Approaching Poetry is a collection of poems about writing poetry and about the nature of the poetry in post-modern America. It covers subjects from words to nature to urban living in a modern world of TV shows, visual arts, ideas and ideologies, covering topics ranging from cats to dolls and more! Mark Grinyer takes readers on a journey of poetic development spanning several decades! Approaching Poetry is a classic collection, with readable poems that create a thirst for more!

"Small Corner of the Stars" is Paul Stroble's third Finishing Line chapbook, all sharing a fictional geography of remembered Midwest times and places. Stroble weaves images of history, railroads, highways, farms, and the eponymous river to celebrate both history and the natural world. A reviewer of "Small Corner" writes, "This poetry is richly populated and sweet without being the least bit sentimental or cloying….You want to know the people in these poems; thanks to Stroble's marvelous language, you have no choice but to love them." Another reviewer writes, "Paul Stroble's chapbook Small Corner of the Stars begins with an exploration of faith and its complexities, then accompanies the reader on a journey though time to examine the terrain of memory, and the everyday places where heart and mind meet."

Kathleen McKinley Harris' chapbook, Earth Striders, (Finishing Line Press) centers on horses. Many of the poems are set in the Vermont of her growing up. She won the Ralph Nading Hill, Jr. Literary Award with her poem, "Bear Fear," called a "walk in the Vermont woods"-Stephen Terry. Her poems "'breathe out vapors' of a pastoral Vermont revivified in the tradition of Robert Frost. Richly narrative, they amplify the jangling, clattering, swishing rhythms and vernacular of yesteryear's farm life."-Sara London, author of The Tyranny of Milk

In Chicken Fat, poet-historian Barbara Krasner reaches into her family history and pulls out visceral stories of Jewish identity, food, and loss that while deeply personal, hold universal appeal. From pleas to Old World grandparents to reminiscences of family vacations in the Catskills, from the Sabbath to the Jewish New Year, from birth to death, this collection of soulful poems recalls connections and disconnections inherent in the circle of life. The poems "Grandma Ruth" and "Because I'm Jewish" earned Honorable Mentions in the Allen Ginsberg awards. A glossary explains Yiddish and Hebrew terms.

Thoughts on Tonight is the debut collection of poet and spoken word artist, Nathan J. Reid, in which nighttime scenes are used to explore ideas of love, loss, appreciation for the here and now, and the process of transformation. Music and nature are celebrated as the poems weave their way through caverns, bedrooms, car rides, and shifting realities, with cultural references ranging from Tom Waits to Stephen Hawking. Reid's fondness for astronomy provides an infrastructure for his own philosophies and unique sense of spiritualism, while the layered, though deceptively simple language makes this an accessible read for all.

Everything Shapes Itself to the Sea is an account of an American couple's months on the Caribbean island of Barbados, whose people, bounties, and rhythms inspired these poems, many of which were first published in leading literary magazines. James Plath's poems have also appeared in Men of Our Time: An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America, Imported Breads: Literature of Cultural Exchange, and Where We Live: Illinois Poets.

Bird Notes is a collection of 24 poems blending the traditional sonnet form with a clear modern voice. Some subjects are drawn from nature ("Audubon in verse," according to another poet), while other birds are mythical and metaphorical. Readers will observe an amazing variety: Northern gannets diving for fish in Scotland; a snowy owl in an Ohio field; ring-billed gulls on the Outer Banks of Kitty Hawk, N.C.; a finch in a nursing home aviary; an indigo macaw in an ecological art exhibit. Readers will explore superstition in "A Murder of Crows," theology in the sparrows of "A Question of Disparity," and psychology in the albatross of "Guilt." A few of these poems appeared in Hughes's national award-winning sonnet collection Breaking Weather ((2014); "Phoenix" won a first place award in the 2016 Ohio Poetry Day competition. Betsy Hughes taught English for 30 years at The Miami Valley School in Dayton, Ohio, where she lives with her husband Jim Hughes, Wright State University emeritus professor of English. Together they enjoy discussion and critique with the Wright Library Poets and the Dayton Poetry Circle.

The Way You Run in Dreams is a chapbook of wholehearted poems that spring from a keen awareness of the divine that is present in the everyday. Moving through the annual cycle of seasons, the book provides full-circle perspectives on time and loss and love in a variety of poetic forms and styles. This book was many years in the making, and it shows in the fine craftsmanship and meticulous choice of every word that went into it. These poems are compact and concise, covering wide areas in just a few lines, expanding as they are unpacked. The spare beauty of their images will provide a memorable encounter for perceptive readers everywhere.

The traveler about to venture beyond the edge of the sky on the cover is a clue to what awaits the reader of Kathleen Ellis' Outer-Body Travel. In this vibrant collection, Ellis pays homage to an early planetarium visit, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Capt. Albert Stevens who proved the earth is curved, Apollo 17 photos, black holes, Eve and Lucy of fossil fame, swimming pools via David Hockney, Tai Chi, and more. Yet, the poems in Ellis' latest collection are not so much about outer space or out-of-body travel as the search for how we know what we know about the body and beyond. As former Maine poet laureate Betsy Sholl says, "the poems always return to earth, to 'the breath you live in.'"

In 2004 an American businessman was invited to Moscow to explain a new technical development to the Government there. Little did he know that this would the beginning of life altering process leading to the love he had always sought but never found as well as a way back to a career as an artist that had escaped him. Between 2004 and 2013 he discovered not only the perils of life in Moscow but also something of the beauty and humanity of its people. Despite many personal struggles he, along with the woman who would later become his wife, overcame many of the issues inherent in an intergenerational and cross-cultural relationship and made it, literally, and sometimes nearly at the cost of their lives, to the other side. Many tragic events in Russia framed his time there but the most profound personal impact was felt by the murder, in October 2006, of his neighbor at Lesnaya 8, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The clearly political Politkovskaya killing sounded the death knell for a free press in Russia and the ever-tightening grip of Putin's regime on all aspects of life there. Though most Russians support Putin both the author and his wife were deeply moved by the few who struggle against him and were proud to know some of the artists and intellectuals emblematic of what little true resistance remains there. A love for these few is expressed in many of the poems in the book. Be it on the sidewalk on Tverskaya Street, in the Metro, Restaurants or Clubs, 'The Moscow Poetry File' gives the reader, in poetic form, a true insight into life there and the danger as well as the excitement inherent in virtually every aspect of daily life. The book is also a great love story and depicts the struggle of two people finding their way to each other despite enormous odds. This struggle, and the triumph of love and mutual respect over adversity is an underlying theme in the book that is depicted with telling effect. 'The Moscow Poetry File', which has been anthologized in the 'Temptation' anthology published by Lost Tower in London, is a compelling view of a dynamic place at a tragic and pivotal time. With "all things Russian" much in the news since the advent of Trump this detailed American perspective, from the ground level, is a unique study, in verse, of a society and culture still mysterious and perplexing to the Western eye.

Humor and horror punctuate the humdrum demands of a life-threatening chronic illness. In Sweet Survival, narrative and lyric poems and a scattering of prose poems exhibit the whimsy and grit a long-term incurable condition entails. Pamela Smith is in her fifth decade as an insulin-dependent diabetic. This collection shows how she has come to thrive. Resilience, even after setbacks, comes with the three C's she offers in "Prescription": cooperation, combat, and contemplation. These poems celebrate life, art, natural beauty, ministry, poetry, pets, humanity, and God. Sweet Survival is a short testament to her gladness for the color and valor of the long haul.

Jean P. Moore's Time's Tyranny brims with images of life's simultaneity. Nature flourishes and dwindles, love heartens and crushes, joy and peace sustain and crumble. Birth, love, death under the watchful eye of the tyrant, time. National Book Award nominee for poetry, Maureen McLean has called Time's Tyranny "a book of memory and swift reckonings" and says, "Moore's work is simultaneously sensual and astringent." This is a poet who "combines in perfect balance a lyric gift with meditative inclination." Poet Judith Baumel calls Time's Tyranny a "wise and lovely collection," enabling readers "to experience both the tyranny and the magic of time."

Alexithymia: The Written Words is a collection of poetry that pushes the boundaries of where word and emotion meet. Through a series of challenging events, the speaker must reevaluate how language is used to describe emotional fallout. Each word connects to the next to build a larger picture of self awareness for the speaker - and reader.

The Weight of the Minolta in Her Hand by Marianna Hofer is a book of poems, written from the perspective of a poet who is also a photographer. The poems suspend brief moments, evoking all the backstory that surrounds and informs them. Like waiting for a photograph to be developed, layers of details and their meanings appear before the reader's eyes. The poems are alternately nostalgic and hopeful, revealing life's moments as if captured by a flashbulb, having been poised, waiting to be perfectly composed in ideal light.

Dialogues Among Lost Tourists centers on journeys-literal and metaphorical voyages-to foreign places. Divided into three parts, this collection of dialogues mediates between the living and the dead, past and present, real and imaginary. Readers are invited to travel alongside the poet to places where time is briefly suspended long enough to access something of what every tourist discovers in the mystery, humor, sadness, and magic of a unique journey. Sometimes getting lost in a strange place presents the best opportunity for unexpected discoveries.