Bøger af Alan Berecka

Atlas Sighs: Selected and New Poems, by Alan Berecka, brings together the best of the poet's previously published volumes, and includes a section of his most recent work. As Ken Hada notes in his introduction, "Alan Berecka's Atlas Sighs: Selected and New Poems offers readers a bountiful collection of narrative poems in which the poet, indeed, finds the 'right, true thing' for each poem."

The poems in 'With Our Baggage' remind us of the baggage we all carry and show us how to do it with grace. The range of subjects is vast, from baseball heroes to the failures of fathers, from being a poet to being Polish in South Texas, from God's radio to American machismo. But the real subject here is the human animal in its many glorious strivings and bumbling failures. The result is a vision of the world as a strange, funny, beautiful place. Though Berecka's poems are sometimes hilarious, tongue-in-cheek, and satiric, they are also painful, poignant, and bittersweet. These varied poems offer the reader a touching human response to incursions of the holy into everyday life.

Alan Berecka's Remembering the Body is one of the few poetry books I couldn't put down. These poems are high-energy, driving narratives that range from hilarious vignettes to poignant episodes of loss and injustice-and now and then one of these small, complete stories manages to be both. Berecka's special gift is a twisty irony that hauls your eyelids up. Try reading the first poem, "The Evolving Case for De-evolution," with a straight face. Peopled with characters you would love to meet or avoid, the poems are mocking and meta- physical, quizzical, sometimes angry, sometimes shoulder-shruggingly acceptant, sometimes romantic and sometimes cynical-but always intriguing. --Janet McCann, Professor of English Texas A&M Alan Berecka's poems reveal truth in microcosm...and a pure heart weaving allegories that range from his native northern land to Texas. These poems will never die because truths are the same at all times in every heart...Because Alan's poetry is easily under- stood, some may misunderstand how superb a poet he is. It is hard to find words better organized to generate emotions than one sees and feels in Remembering the Body. --Cleatus Rattan, 2004 Texas Poet Laureate A son trying to outgrow a father, a sinner reckoning with saints, Alan Berecka evokes ancient Greece, summons Corpus Christi, quickens Wordsworth and wrestles with God. You will laugh and cry as you read these poems, but most of all, you will think what a good and haunting thing it is to be human. --Ken Hada, author of Spare Parts and The Way of the Wind