The Wingspan of Things
by Jeannie E. Roberts
16 poems ~ 33 pages
Price: $7.00
ISBN: (none assigned, the publisher and the author are the sole marketers and distributors)
Publisher: Dancing Girl Press & Studio
To Order: https://dulcetshop.myshopify.com/products/the-wingspan-of-things-jeannie-e-roberts



ABOUT THE BOOK:


The Wingspan of Things is dedicated to the author's son and its cover features her nature photography. Most of the poems in this collection are nature -oriented and place the reader midst landscapes of our natural world, with special focus on birds, butterflies, and other winged-creatures. In this collection, as in her others, Roberts delivers the beauty of sound patterns and unique word combinations while paying attention to the details of life with compassionate observance. The Wingspan of Things contains poignant moments and memories of her son, including "The 3:20 School Bus" and "My Son's Tattoos," and suggests the fleeting nature, the flight of things, including motherhood.



ADVANCE PRAISE:


"A keen and poetic observer of the natural world, Jeannie Roberts reminds us of our rootedness to the land and the creatures who inhabit it. Every word asks us to pause, to celebrate, to look closer for the wonder half-hidden before our eyes. You'll leave these poems feeling warmer, better, and a little more human, too."
—B.J. Hollars, Author of Flock Together: A Love Affair with Extinct Birds


These poems lead you gently away from the world most of us inhabit: technology, drab offices and the tyranny of our phones and wristwatches— an ersatz existence compared to the magnificence teeming around us if only we would pay attention. Roberts' poems invite us into the vividness of the natural world and show us our place in it, by parting the stiff gray curtain of our harried lives to show us a glimpse of what could be. In fact, this connection with the natural world that she so lovingly and adeptly shows us through her poems makes us want to tear down whatever it is that prevents us from truly seeing the beauty around us. She is a poet with a wide and gaping eye, steeped in the lushness of everyday life, reflecting her deep communion with nature. The joy in these poems is evident. She is a true lyricist of the natural world.
—Michelle Reale, Author of Confini: Poems of Refugees in Sicily (Cervena Barva, 2018) and Behold, My Laminate Life (Big Table Books, 2018)


The Wingspan of Things is a luminous journey through landscape and memory, and Roberts' elegant craft and subtle sense of rhythm are constant companions throughout the collection. Few poets can transport readers, from the tactile to the spiritual, the way she can.
—Jason Splichal, Founder of Sky Island Journal



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


In addition to The Wingspan of Things, Jeannie E. Roberts has authored three other poetry collections, including Romp and Ceremony (Finishing Line Press, 2017), Beyond Bulrush (Lit Fest Press, 2015), and Nature of it All (Finishing Line Press, 2013). She is also the author and illustrator of Let's Make Faces!, a children's book dedicated to her son (author-published, 2009).

Her work appears in online magazines, print journals, and anthologies, including Anti-Heroin Chic, Bards Against Hunger, Blue Heron Review, Bramble, Festival
of Language's Festival Writer, Literary Mama, Off the Coast, Portage Magazine, Praxis Magazine, Presence Journal, Quill & Parchment, Silver Birch Press, Sky Island Journal, The Paddock Review, Verse-Virtual, Visual Verse, Yellow Chair Review and elsewhere. Born and raised in Minneapolis, she lives in an inspiring setting near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where she writes, draws and paints, and often photographs her natural surroundings. She is Poetry Editor for the online literary magazine Halfway Down the Stairs and serves as the West Central Region's Co-Vice President for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.

FROM THE BOOK:

But Oh How It Feels so Real
—inspired by the 1971 song "Tiny Dancer"
by Jeannie Roberts


Stippled across eclipse of night
flashes imprint upon the tarp
of darkness

Signals sway
leap and jeté
glissade and plié
above me

Lying here
upon the aphrodisiac
of moss's softness

the family of Lampyridae
quiver and surge
merge
midst the nocturne
of summer's solstice

Counting blinks
on this ambient highway
I say softly slowly
Come closer
Tiny Dancers

illumine my palms
atop the fabric of woodland's
understory
brighten and balm
beneath the expanse of dancing amber

pulsate your psalms
in my hands

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