Bøger udgivet af Green Altar Books

THESE POEMS-PUFFS OF AIR, OR "AEROSOLS"-are auras, emanations of being, lingering, prolonging meaning. Following the title poem, they are arranged in sections, structured according to themes, inspirations, forms, or other markers. Among the underlying vectors are perception and imagination-how we see, feel, and picture things. The approach is, loosely, phenomenological. Hence the importance here of painting and of poetry itself. Vision as both tool and matter plays a major role. Vivid scenes, memories, daydreams, and concocted idylls arise from stores of sight, outer and inner. Such visions are essential for personal and collective health. -Catharine Savage Brosman, From Introductory Note Praise for Aerosols and Other Poems"The foliage around us shakes, not with wind, /but being." So writes Catharine Savage Brosman in her rich new book of poetry, Aerosols. Brosman is timeless in her sensibility. She conjures up the mystic ontology underlying space, time, and the memory of time. This nearly cosmic reach is intertwined with an unparalleled ability to be in the moment as an opening towards eternity, and all is conveyed with craftsmanship of the most impeccable character. As if this weren't enough, she brings back the grand tradition of including exquisite translations from other poets-José-Maria de Heredia, Verlaine, Apollinaire. She is master of literary translation, as these poems live in English as they live in French, and resonate with the themes of Brosman's original work. -Jonathan Chaves Praise for Brosman's previous poetry."Catharine Brosman has produced one of the most remarkable bodies of work in contemporary poetry."-Jesse Graves. "Her poems are illuminating." -Marc Jolley "For nearly half a century now, Catharine Savage Brosman has been one of this country's finest poets, not just because of her mastery of language and form, but also because of the courage to remain true to her traditionalist aesthetic." -Claude Wilkinson. "Catharine Savage Brosman, one of the greatest poets of our age, has recovered for contemporary poetry a concern for the essentially human and universal within a romantic poetry of reflection." -James Matthew Wilson

Tiller is set in upcountry South Carolina in the year 2008. Its chief character, who has just turned sixty, is doing what he can to maintain a sane life in and for his farm community in a time that is seriously out of joint. After the tragic loss of his wife two decades ago, Chauncey still lives alone on his family farm, but has slowly rejoined the world. It is his ties to the land and the members of his community that aid in the healing process. Tiller details this coming back to normalcy through his primary friendships with Kildee and Bess Henderson, Clint Blair (his dead wife's brother) and Trig Tinsley, a childhood friend who has had his own problems. These are characters met in Kibler's three previous novels set in this same community: Memory's Keep (which takes place in 1975), Walking Toward Home (set in 2003), and The Education of Chauncey Doolittle (set the year before in 2007). A new character, Dana Oxner, now divorced, returns home from corporate life in Charlotte seeking normalcy as well. Both she and Chauncey have scars that still need healing and together find solace in one another. In many ways the novel inverts the plot of Thomas Hardy's famous tragic novel, The Return of the Native. Tiller can be read alone, but achieves richness and complexity from its three predecessors. It thus forms the cap and final volume of a full tetralogy. Few such literary accomplishments are to be found in modern literature.

SOUTH CAROLINIAN MAXCY GREGG was a lawyer, a classically educated scholar with mastery of many languages, a politician, and a volunteer soldier. But his primary interest was the natural world, especially birds, more than 50 varieties of which he must have identified. Gregg was a self-instructed genuine expert and avid investigator of birdlife and wild plants and he had an astronomical observatory built into his house. His "sporting journals," long neglected sources of antebellum Southern history, were meticulous and are meticulously edited by Suzanne Parfitt Johnson. Gregg's recorded trips cover most of South Carolina, portions of neighboring States, and a sojourn in Mexico-mountains, rivers, Upcountry, Lowcountry. In addition to the wildlife and his hunting prowess or lack thereof, he describes topography, weather, and natural phenomenon (a comet, a hurricane, immense flights of passenger pigeons). The record also provides insight into city, country, and wilderness life. His hunting companions play a prominent part-dogs, horses, and men. Here is a realistic and unusual sample of antebellum Southern life as it was lived day by day.