Description
Poetry. The "snare" in Robert Eastwood's new poetry collection is the past, historical past interwoven with personal past, a web from which the poet cannot escape and into which the reader will tumble headlong. The scent of citronella wafts through the ages and these pages (though watch out for a certain Colt pistol along the way as well), through tales that link Civil War and Cold War, persona poems and memoir. Mad, maimed Boston Corbett, assassin's assassin, seeks refuge from the demons of the flesh and of war and of his own actions; while in another time a family seeks another form of refuge from the new terror of nuclear annihilation, attempting to put both geography and a retreat from modernity between them and their fears. In lesser hands the result might have been chaotic, but Eastwood's mastery of language and detail weaves these seemingly disparate threads into a rich tapestry of memory. What we cannot escape, we must try to comprehend, perhaps even...to celebrate.
Author Bio
Robert Eastwood has evolved, not just in the biological sense, but in the evolving of his heart and mind. He began a career in business, and although he was relatively successful for thirty-four years, he knew he wanted something else. He dabbled with art, but it was something to do with books. He became a teacher, he taught high- schoolers writing, but found it was the writing itself he wanted to do. At 60, when his four children were out of college, and away, making their own futures, he began to write and publish poems and short stories. Now, after 22 years, when he sees a not too distant horizon, he has published four books of poetry with reputable publishers, he has won prizes and recognition, and enjoys friendships with like-minded poets and writers. His works include CANTATA ANGELENO (Broadstone Books, 2021) and SNARE (Broadstone Books, 2016). Maybe evolution, as Alfred North Whitehead and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin suggested, is ineluctably upward. We are collaborators in creation.
Author City: SAN RAMON, CA USA