Overview

The poems in this book carry the quiet authority of broad-based lived experience. They range in topics from political violence, hate, and horror to the peace, rest, and joy of nature and everything in between: the charming, humorous pride of a fisherman's catch, a young boy's Treasure Island adventure, a beaver's indomitable courage after a storm, a very sad melancholy moon, a historic view of salt, birds and rabbits stealing blueberries, a heart- wrenchingly sad cold wind in August, the soft alternative to a hard life, the horror of genocidal body parts in the river, the nostalgia of a castle's describing how ""my heart leaps up, my turrets smile, and heavy years grow light."" Nature's ambivalence is as stark as man's when ""a world of harmony and joy, devoid of tooth and claw,"" is shattered by a hawk's snatching up a black snake for dinner. There are as many words as images in these poems that draw from all five senses and end in a desert monsoon that sweeps away the scorching sun and arid land, which had left deer panting in the shade, roadrunners slow to walk, and dusty snakes scarcely able to rattle. These images speak for themselves in focusing on experience and reflection, rather than spectacle, without forcing conclusions. Maybe it's the humility, the curiosity, and the reverence for what travel can reveal that shows rather than tells what a life thoughtfully observed can become when the poet watches, listens, and feels, as Stendhal once described, like ""a mirror wandering down a great road,"" showing as much beauty as ugliness for a complete view of the inner as much as the outer soul.

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Lauren Yoder was born in Newport News, Virginia in 1943. He holds a degree in English from Eastern Mennonite University and his doctorate in French from the University of Iowa, having also studied for a year at the Ecole d'Administration in Belgium. Lauren spent most of his professional career teaching French language and literature as well as African literature at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He was fortunate to be able to spend many years in France as a teacher and as the director of Davidson's study abroad program. He also taught high school physics and chemistry in Zaire for two years and American Studies for a year at the Université Omar Bongo in Gabon. Other African experience included working for two years in relief and development in Burundi and Rwanda. He is the translator of tales, novels and poetry from French to English and has enjoyed playing with words since college days. A lover of the outdoors, hiking and nature photography, Lauren had the privilege, after retirement from his teaching career, of working as a volunteer with his late wife in a number of state and national parks, in Alaska, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and North Carolina. He is pleased in retirement to find time to write, to pick up his ukulele, to develop photography skills and to continue walking on mountain trails. He currently lives with his wife Sydney in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

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