Cold Fire: Poems

FORMER COLORADO POET LAUREATE

From the volcanic landscapes of the Pacific Rim to the mythic echoes of Greece and India, Cold Fire is a radiant meditation on memory, nature, and the enduring sparks of love and creation.

David Mason’s poetry circles the globe. The urgent and beautiful poems of his new book, Cold Fire, have settings in Australia, India, Greece, Turkey and the American West. A title sequence takes up the Aboriginal practice of cool burning for fire mitigation, and moves to the Ring of Fire, the volcanoes of Mason’s childhood home in the Pacific Northwest—fires of creation and destruction. Here the dream life of art is pitched against human conflict. Here we have poems of family life, aging, and a deep conversation with history and myth. This is a book of light, love, and powerful remembrance from the edge of the world.

Born and raised in Bellingham, Washington, David Mason has lived all over the world. His verse novel, Ludlow, was published in 2007 (2nd ed. 2010), and named best poetry book of the year by the Contemporary Poetry Review and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. It was also featured on the PBS News Hour and won the Colorado Book Award. Mason’s memoir, News from the Village, appeared in 2010. Mason has written many essay collections and also co-edited several textbooks and anthologies. His own work can be found in Best American Poetry, The Penguin Book of 20th Century American Poetry, and others. A former Fulbright Fellow to Greece, Mason served as poet laureate of Colorado from 2010 to 2014, and taught at Colorado College. Mason lives in Tasmania, the island state of Australia.