Local News: Poetry About Small Towns

Even if two of my poems weren’t in this anthology, I’d still be singing its praises. From Connecticut to Ohio to Bend, Oregon, the poets assembled in this book write of their small towns but really write of all towns.
 
Some poems dwell in memories like “Remember the Clothesline.” Some poems dwell in the present like “Aldi’s Blues.” Some poems blend the two like this first stanza from George Ella Lyon’s poem titled “Where I’m From”:
 
            I am from clothespins,
            from Clorox and carbon-trtrachloride.
            I am from the dirt under the black porch.
           (Black, glistening
           it tasted like beets.)
           I am from the forsythia bush,
           the Dutch elm
           whose long gone limbs I remember
           as if they were my own.
 
At heart, each poem is about relationships -- with mothers, cousins, locker mates -- and what we learn from each other. And the book as a whole is so well-curated that each poem flows into the next almost as if written by the same poet. Kudos to the book’s editors, Tom Montag and David Graham!
 
I have several of these books so I could loan you one or if you want your own you’ll find order information here:
 
https://www.facebook.com/smalltownpoetry/
 
 

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