“Paul Bluestein opens this fresh and vibrant collection of poems with a brief set of seasonal poems sectioned into Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. He then slides eloquently into the heart and soul of time passages where his deep love for his dogs, his wife and nature are painted in gentle tapestries and spoken with sincerity, warmth and spirit.”
Paul Bluestein is an obstetrician and blues guitar player and writer who lives in Connecticut with his wife and Tucker, an unreasonably demanding rescue dog. His work has appeared in The Broken Plate, The Linden Avenue Literary Review, Third Wednesday, El Portal and Penumbra among other publications. His first full-length collection, Time Passages, was published by Silver Bow Publishing. Avialable at Amazon.com.
How does before become after? What happens to our dreams? Our disappointments? These stunning poems in Bright Soil, Dark Sun interrogate time and present moments of excavation, of tracing—and sometimes slipping into—the echoes and scars into which we wake each day, “the world and what haunts / beneath it blending in / bitter harmony.” How much of the past—our own or that of others—can we truly understand? And what is the cost of that understanding? Samuel Franklin explores these corporeal labyrinths and lets each poem reveal its own distinct thread. To quote one of his speakers, I am glad “I was there to see its glint.” 
Samuel Franklin is the author of two books of poetry: 
The meadowlark, belting his song from a post on this book’s cover, is recognized across the country as a harbinger of spring. Enlivening the ambiance of this poetry collection, familiar birds represent the character and mood of its four sections: noisy jays, melodious wrens, steadfast robins, tranquil swans. While birds populate many of the poems, hardly more than a handful have birds as their subjects. The poems’ subjects derive from wide ranging personal experiences often narrated as dramatic situations, usually with something emotionally important at stake. Settings are urban and rural, delineated in finely tuned sensuous detail. Some poems are sonorously lyrical, others ironic or assertive. 
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5-time Pushcart nominee and author of seven books, Guinotte Wise’s fiction collection 
In this splendid collection of engaging and unmistakably American poems, David Jibson manages to find beauty in utterly unexpected places: piled up on a back shelf at the Salvation Army Store, for example, or strung along the bedraggled length of the Ohio Turnpike—or perhaps in the lovely, tentative dance of a blind woman learning to walk with a white cane. Along with a faint echo of Ted Kooser or Billy Collins at their conversational best, you’ll be captivated by Jibson’s own irresistible voice: that of a witty, insightful observer of the astonishments that surround us. 
In a thrilling interconnected narrative, 
Random Saints
Joe Cottonwood
We Bury the Landscape
The poems in Some Electric Hum are set in Kansas and Texas and interrogate gender and social norms against the backdrop of a stark rural landscape. These brave and carefully crafted poems explore topics of coming of age, womanhood, immigration and human rights. With beautiful imagery and a clear voice, Some Electric Hum will appeal not only to lovers of poetry, but to all lovers of the written word.
A native Texan now living in Kansas, Janice Northerns holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Tech University. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many journals
Bravo! The marvel of James B. Nicola’s substantial collection is how his superb craftsmanship never once muffles the voice of his exuberant stage-struck heart. A warm-hearted, cold-eyed ode to the business known as show. —John Guare
James B. Nicola’s f