In the Lilac Hour& Other Poems (Paperback or Softback)

The poems in John Muro's first book, In the Lilac Hour & Other Poems, move with a sure hand between closed forms (especially sonnets), invented forms, poems after writers like Keats and Frost, and free verse; and they are committed to seeing and honoring the passing of seasons, of friends and family, and to the birds and flowers that constitute the local reality of our everyday lives. Looking closely and surely at the world around him, Muro's descriptive abilities are everywhere apparent: the crack of a screen door shutting lingers "long on pneumatic air"; a pear is a "tilted Buddha"; swans are "high, heavy clouds / idly set upon the water"; cardinal flowers are "incendiary petal flare, the arching thrust / Of fireworks in descent." But the poems always widen from a series of exacting and fresh images to a wider context-the diminishing habitat of Lady Slippers or a Swainson's Thrush running up against the glass windows of a suburban house. These deft and heartfelt poems trace our connections and disconnections to nature, community, and family while amplifying and celebrating life.

A life-long resident of Connecticut, John Muro is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford. He has also attained advanced degrees from Wesleyan University and the University of Connecticut. He has been an advocate for environmental stewardship and conservation throughout his career, and he has held several volunteer and executive positions in those fields. He has had a life-long passion for literature and the arts, and considers himself particularly fortunate to have worked at The Wadsworth Atheneum, the Bushnell Memorial and the Hartford Stage Company (all in Hartford) while a student. John has been recognized for his volunteer activities by the State of Connecticut, and he has also been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his efforts in support of small businesses. John was a resident of Bolton, CT, until he recently relocated to Guilford on the Connecticut shoreline with his wife, Debra Ann. They have four children. This is his first volume of published poems.