Description
Poetry. Finalist for a 2019 CT Book Award for Poetry. The augurs of ancient Rome were charged with studying natural phenomena, like the flight habits of birds, in order to look for propitious or unfavorable omens. The poems in AUGUR are attempts, in prescribed and open forms, to "decode" the signs of a world in the midst of tremendous and often bewildering upheaval. Written from the interlocking perspectives of father, husband, son, brother, educator, and citizen, the poetry in AUGUR seeks to engage life with clarity. Many of the poems are charged with the energies of the natural world, including the patterns of bird flight the augurs once looked to, not as an escape, but as a source of information and insight. Ultimately, we must inscribe the signs with meaning and reject the small priesthoods and corrupt officials who claim all vision (and power).
Author Bio
Jonathan Andersen's other books include The Burden Note (Meridian Prize, 2014), an English/Serbo- Croatian chapbook, and Stomp and Sing (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2005). He is the editor of the anthology Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other U.S.A. (Smokestack Books, 2008). For twelve years he was a high school English and special education teacher, and since 2008 he has been a professor of English at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson and Willimantic, Connecticut. He and his wife, fellow writer and educator Denise Abercrombie, live in Storrs, Connecticut with their two sons, Kit and Miles.
Author City: STORRS MANSFIELD, CT USA