2008 D-N Publishing National Competition Winner. Poetry evokes a full range of emotions from readers.
National Book Award and Pulitzer entrant containing beautifully crafted poetry. Imagery and style help develop characters so that the book almost reads like more than 60 short stories. Wonderful sounds and language in poems that are deceptively simple, but have the strength to pull the reader into the pieces and into the world of the author. Impossible not to laugh on one page and be somber and pensive on another. Signed copies: $14, includes postage! Paypal or check.
meador.poetry (at) gmail.com
Excerpt
Sign Language
There was never a conversation with Susie,
no grunted words slung from a passing swing
or breathless banter rolled from the high
end of the teeter-totter.
There is no voice to recall, only a plaid dress
draped over a white blouse. The same dress worn
day after day, which murmured its own words
beneath the dark tongue of her ponytail.
Near the end of the year, after I had pissed
my pants because someone hadn’t flipped
the red circle hanging on the restroom door
to green, Susie finally had something to say.
I looked across two aisles and she pointed
her finger at me, then touched it to the corner
of her eye. She repeated the motions. Slowly
spreading her legs she lowered the finger
and aimed it between them, at the yellow panties.
I have never read Robert Fulghum’s book,
but I damn-well know that he didn’t learn
everything in kindergarten.
Professional Reviews
Christine Klocek-Lim
The gritty realism of these poems serves as a strong backbone to the narrative that runs throughout the entire book, using imagery and memory to underline the subtle humanity of the characters. Here are poems that can teach us to remember while leaving us wishing for more because the pain and joy of life is woven throughout the book, amongst the clear detail in poems like "Sign Language," "In Living Color," and "The Trestle."
However, one need only read poems like "New Message" and "Missile Crisis" to realize that Meador's work encompasses much more than childhood; rather, the poems expand upon further reading, showing the reader that it is only through the personal that one becomes aware of man's role in the greater narrative of the world itself. It is in these poems that the reader understands how politics and tragedy entwine with the self, teaching us once again how we all contribute to the greater society of humanity, even if that contribution is as small as a child's memory of his grandfather's wartime scars.
Editor, Autumn Sky Poetry
Robin Stratton
I am always so grateful whenever Steve Meador invites me into his delicious world of nostalgia, where shopping at ben Franklin Five and Dime, the coming-of-age antics with your cousin, and a creep glass eye are the undisputed highlights of a kid's day. His writing touches every emotion in the spectrum.
Each person is but a grain of sand resting beside the sea. This thought sets the tone for Jill Eisnaugle’s latest poetry collection, Beside Still Waters.
The songs and art in this book are about our collective emergence after the pandemic and trauma of the last few years - comprised of 5 collections: World as Refuge, Where We Live, In Our Hands, Rhythms of Change and What We See & Sow.
