|
Aligned with the Sky: Poems
by Kathy Lohrum Cotton
77 Poems ~ 4 Illustrations ~ 99 pages
Cover Design & Collage Art: Kathy Lohrum Cotton
Price: $12.00
Publisher: Independently published ~ poetry.deepwellbooks@gmail.com
ISBN #: 9798866560677
To Order: Amazon.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In Kathy Lohrum Cotton’s latest collection, 77 personal and provocative poems speak of our connections with the world around us and the world within us. Virtually no corner of life escapes her notice … if you’re looking for a seasoned poet’s quest for love, joy, and peace, you will enjoy each turn-of-the-page in Aligned with the Sky.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
Joy and sorrow weave themselves deftly through the pages of Kathy Cotton’s beautifully written and illustrated new collection of poetry, Aligned with the Sky. While creating a more cohesive, friendly world, the poet carries her readers “to the farthest curl/of the flyway’s unwound ribbon.” Studying lessons of nature, she searches beyond life’s struggles, resurfacing with an indestructible sense of optimism and hope. In her poem “Turnsole” she says, “I lift my face to follow light.”
–Patty Dickson Pieczka, Beyond the Moon’s White Claw
Kathy Cotton speaks in these poems about gathering. This gathering of words brings us all together as if at a campfire under starlit sky. These poetic tales are so relatable, reading them flames our own memories as they collide with those of this amazing poet. And we align with her under a like moon, writing ourselves into this reflective offering.
–Jacob erin-cilberto, All the Poems I Never Wrote, and 21 other collections.
–Aligned with the Sky is a glorious poetic journey through the seasons and the stars. You are coaxed into Cotton’s world–seeing, and feeling all the hope and uncertainty, with the assurance of time and peace. I dare you to read this book and not find yourself lying on your back in your own yard, aligning yourself with the night sky or sitting on your porch as “maple copters spin across” it. I even bet you’ll hear the seasons sing their songs, each carrying a new melody.
–Mary Beth Bretzlauf, President, Illinois State Poetry Society
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kathy Lohrum Cotton is a southern Illinois poet and editor whose work appears in literary journals, magazines and anthologies and as exhibits of poetry combined with her digital collage artwork. Cotton is the author of two chapbooks; the illustrated poetry book, Deluxe Box of Crayons; the 2020 collection, Common Ground; the 2022 co-authored collaboration, Synergy; and Aligned with the Sky, 2023.
Cotton supports the art of poetry as a board member of both the Illinois State Poetry Society and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She has edited and produced more than 60 books, including three of the National Federation’s annual collections of prize-winning poetry.
See more at www.kathycotton.com.
FROM THE BOOK:
Pay Attention
by Kathy Lohrum Cotton
to the ecstatic dance of dust
in shafts of sunlight,
to fleeting hymns of wind
and housefly wings,
soup-pot incense,
asphalt altars.
Revere the symmetry of
honeycombs and butterflies,
birds on a wire,
little girls holding hands.
At the holy commotion
of playground,
the liturgy of the marketplace,
bow your head,
and bend the knee to
sacred rainbows shining
from horizons and puddles
and fish scales. Look,
every anthill and far-off star,
every eye-blink view
reveal its own beauty
to the reverent heart.
|
