Rosing from the Dead - Softcover

Paul J. Willis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1602260044 ISBN 13: 9781602260047

Publisher: WordFarm, 2009

Synopsis

From the details of hikes in the mountains, conversations with children, observations in the college classroom or the church sanctuary, and forays into family history, Paul Willis weaves poems that "[push you] beyond the mundane to an unusual angle of vision." (Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Christian Century). Several of the poems in Rosing from the Dead, Willis's second full-length collection, have appeared in publications such as Appalachia, Bark, Books & Culture, Christian Century, Cider Press Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Mars Hill Review and Ruminate.

About this title

About the Author

Paul J. Willis is a professor of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. His poems have been featured on Verse Daily and Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. And his work (including poems, essays and reviews) has also appeared in The Best Christian Writing 2006 (Jossey-Bass), The Best American Spiritual Writing 2004 (Houghton Mifflin), The Best Spiritual Writing 1999 (HarperSanFrancisco), and in publications such as Ascent, Books & Culture, The Christian Century, Image, Poetry, Redwood Coast Review, River Teeth and Wilderness.

His first full-length collection of poems is Visiting Home (Pecan Grove Press, 2006), and his chapbooks include Poison Oak (Mille Grazie Press, 1999), The Deep and Secret Color of Ice (Small Poetry Press, 2003) and How to Get There (Finishing Line Press, 2004). He is also the author of two eco-fantasy novels, No Clock in the Forest and The Stolen River (both Avon, 1993). With David Starkey, he is co-editor of the anthology In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (University of Iowa Press, 2005).

Willis gives readings and workshops around the country. A former mountain guide in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, he now spends his spare time rambling in the San Rafael Mountains behind his home.

Review

Reading Paul Willis's poems in Rosing from the Dead is like taking day hikes with an experienced, wise guide. I find myself trusting his lead and expecting each poem to show me a new vista. Along the way there's always his soft, often humorous voice that keeps me attentive to what we're passing and assures me that we'll make it home safely. --Thom Satterlee, author of Burning Wyclif

Whether dreaming of lost fingers or musing on the string of Willises in the Dictionary of National Biography or learning to see through the divided world of bifocals, Paul Willis captures the immediate and pushes it beyond the mundane to an unusual angle of vision. These poems reach beyond the occasional event to the most deeply redemptive insights. --Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Poetry Editor, The Christian Century

Readers familiar with Paul Willis's poems know to expect a delightful weave of keen observation, whimsy, and grace. He speaks as one willing to be amused, surprised, and taught by ordinary encounters with other living beings. And he loves a good pun, as good poets always do, because meaning always comes by bearing secrets. The open secrets in these poems invite us all into a conspiracy of pleasure in family life, in age and experience gratefully accepted, and in the wild, where we may still find renewal and revelation. --Marilyn McEntyre, author of In Quiet Light, Drawn to the Light and The Color of Light, a trilogy of poems on Dutch painters

About this edition

• Publisher: WordFarm
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1602260044
• ISBN 13: 9781602260047
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 99