These poems, and a few travel essays that go with them, are from the Great Lakes and from around the world.
The Wilderness Within is about people, places, plants, animals and the place where the outer world meets the inner.The Wilderness Within is about seasons of the year and seasons of life.
Excerpt
Agate, A Gate
Go to the beach at Grand Marais
to watch the small stones roll.
Surf slants in
licks and slicks and clicks the stones
sometimes casts up bones
and out and in again:
black, brown, bronze Lake Superior stones,
pudding, Petoskey, quartz,, greenstone, copper.
Folded carnelian, amethyst, jasper, opal.
So choose a stone made of star stuff
a rosy stone veined with blue--
maybe you'll find the stone is a gate
when held to the setting sun.
Professional Reviews
A Journey of the Senses and Spirit
We who anticipate each new poem by Barbara Spring celebrate the release of The Wilderness Within…a journey of the Senses and Spirit. As we are warped from the Arctic to the Galapagos and into the brain of a hummingbird, her visions become ours. But be warned: hours or weeks later if asked who you are, you may mumble something about a bat…or a whale…or a cottonwood seed.
And it’s true.
Edgar Rollins
The Lunar Archives
(www.lunararchives.com)
A Formidable Poet
You don’t have to read too far into Barbara Spring’s poetry collection, “The Wilderness Within”, to see the common theme that threads through her poetic vision. Nature has always been a powerful inspiration to poets and there is an exceptional understanding and love of the natural world expressed in these poems and essays.
I have always believed that one of the best ways to identify a formidable poet is their use of strong words, powerful words. No fear of such words here: battering and beat, both words of considerable power appear in the first poem, Bear Woman. Strong words bring strong images and it becomes possible to see into Barbara’s vision of nature that is loving without being sugar coated. She sees the reality, the threats that face this world she loves so much. Don’t mistake me, these are not protest poems, there is no didacticism here, but works of appreciation and understanding that repay careful reading.
Visual images are also strong in Barbara’s work and there are poems here that come alive because of the addition of form to words – Ruby Throat is a fine example in the early pages of the book.
There are occasional departures from the natural world, The Library at Alexandria carries echoes of Robert Bly and is dedicated to him. It is an exceptional poem even among this collection of consistently fine work.
Spring is a poet worth getting to know. She sees a world we all know and expresses it eloquently: “I am Earth, red sun and yellow flower” from Meditation and yet there is also mystery here, she inhabits the spirit of the natural world:
From Bonesounds
Of my jointed finger bones
string wind chimes
so breezes may click them
outside your bedroom window.
This is a consistent collection, though, of course, there are variations within a volume of this length. Nevertheless, those I would have excluded are few and none jar the senses by being downright bad.
Overall, this is an impressive work. The poet lays her visions bare and we come away the richer for that.
Chesil, editor of PW Review
Gem of a Book
Reviewed by Sherry Russell Author/reviewer as reviewed in Midwest Book Review
As a child I loved poetry. As an adult, one of my favorite possessions is a 1921 edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. I also possess several other collector copies of 19th century poets. It is said that the earliest forms of poetic expression induced the very unfolding of communication and language itself.
When I started reading The Wilderness Within written by Barbara Spring, I was not expecting to fall in love with this little gem of a book and savor it poem by poem. Ms. Spring considers the mystery of the world in her poems sharing impulses of curiosity along with the complexity of nature, life and death. Her poems are in privileged alignment with the living and breathing spirit. She possesses the poetic eye for passing flecks of details while bearing witness to her vast travels and experiences. Several stories and pictures flank some of the poems.
The stories offer trip details to the Copper Canyon and the Galapagos Islands while the pictures add additional stimulation for the mind. I read this book three times before writing this review trying to find my favorite poem. I simply couldn’t decide on one favorite. Each poem has its own unique spiritual and intellectual wandering to it. Poems such as “Bedtime Story”, “Bloodroot Bearings”, “The Green Man’s Secret” and “The Entryway” all bear witness to the author’s yearnings and passions about life.
This book offers up a number of delicious poems. It is a true fascinating delight, elegant in style and profound in feeling. “The Wilderness Within” is a tempting glimpse of the moves of a first rate talent and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Spring.
LOVELY WORK
There is something for everyone in The Wilderness Within. Writer/Poet Spring says ‘they just keep coming, these poems. Places, friends, family, animals, birds, fish, flowers, stones, lakes, rivers, and the unseen world enter these poems in unexpected ways.’ Poet Spring’s love of nature flows to the reader as these poems and essays are enjoyed. Accomplished, piercing, words to enrapture, and thrill are offered as poet Spring draws upon adventures of life to give rise to an opus of lovely work. Family life, life lessons, enlightenment communicate to the heart of the reader in agreeable and measurable manner. Readers will be sure to be transformed in a very tangible way while reading the words offered by this perceptive, straightforward woman whose observable zeal is to share her life with others.
FULL REVIEW THIS SITE: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=14102
Reviewed by Sherry Russell
7/6/2003
As a child I loved poetry. As an adult, one of my favorite possessions is a 1921 edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. I also possess several other collector copies of 19th century poets. It is said that the earliest forms of poetic expression induced the very unfolding of communication and language itself.
When I started reading The Wilderness Within written by Barbara Spring, I was not expecting to fall in love with this little gem of a book and savor it poem by poem. Ms. Spring considers the mystery of the world in her poems sharing impulses of curiosity along with the complexity of nature, life and death. Her poems are in privileged alignment with the living and breathing spirit. She possesses the poetic eye for passing flecks of details while bearing witness to her vast travels and experiences. Several stories and pictures flank some of the poems.
The stories offer trip details to the Copper Canyon and the Galapogos Islands while the pictures add additional stimulation for the mind. I read this book three times before writing this review trying to find my favorite poem. I simply couldn’t decide on one favorite. Each poem has its own unique spiritual and intellectual wandering to it. Poems such as “Bedtime Story”, “Bloodroot Bearings”, “The Green Man’s Secret” and “The Entryway” all bear witness to the author’s yearnings and passions about life.
This book offers up a number of delicious poems. It is a true fascinating delight, elegant in style and profound in feeling. “The Wilderness Within” is a tempting glimpse of the moves of a first rate talent and I look forward to reading more from Ms. Spring.
Sherry Russell
Reviewed by Chesil
7/6/2003
You don’t have to read too far into Barbara Spring’s poetry collection, “The Wilderness Within”, to see the common theme that threads through her poetic vision. Nature has always been a powerful inspiration to poets and there is an exceptional understanding and love of the natural world expressed in these poems and essays.
I have always believed that one of the best ways to identify a formidable poet is their use of strong words, powerful words. No fear of such words here: battering and beat, both words of considerable power appear in the first poem, Bear Woman. Strong words bring strong images and it becomes possible to see into Barbara’s vision of nature that is loving without being sugar coated. She sees the reality, the threats that face this world she loves so much. Don’t mistake me, these are not protest poems, there is no didacticism here, but works of appreciation and understanding that repay careful reading.
Visual images are also strong in Barbara’s work and there are poems here that come alive because of the addition of form to words – Ruby Throat is a fine example in the early pages of the book.
There are occasional departures from the natural world, The Library at Alexandria carries echoes of Robert Bly and is dedicated to him. It is an exceptional poem even among this collection of consistently fine work.
Spring is a poet worth getting to know. She sees a world we all know and expresses it eloquently: “I am Earth, red sun and yellow flower” from Meditation and yet there is also mystery here, she inhabits the spirit of the natural world:
From Bonesounds
Of my jointed finger bones
string wind chimes
so breezes may click them
outside your bedroom window.
This is a consistent collection, though, of course, there are variations within a volume of this length. Nevertheless, those I would have excluded are few and none jar the senses by being downright bad.
Overall, this is an impressive work. The poet lays her visions bare and we come away the richer for that.
Inspirational poetry, written from the heart and soul. Verses that are well-suited for reading on a rainy day and that are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.
