Recalibrations
by Monty Mittleman
29 Poems ~ 32 pages
Price: $15.99 (during pre-sale ending June 19, $17.99 after)
Release scheduled during week of August 7, 2026
Publisher: Finishing Line Press
ISBN #: To be supplied later
To Order: Finishing Line Press
ABOUT THE BOOK:
This collection of poems explores themes of love, grief and one family coming to terms with a wife and mother’s cancer. From love at first sight to his wife’s passing, follow the author and his family as they continue to live life, despite the uncertainties of this progressive disease. Through the brevity of Cinquains, the imagery of a Haibun and the beauty of a Nonet, the author says much with these minimalist formats. This book will resonate with readers who have felt the heartache and pain of caring for a loved one.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
“In Recalibrations, Monty Mittleman gives us a gem in every poem in this treasure chest of shared memory. Handfasted by water, apple-pie fingers, charcoal shadows, coyote soprano, pick-your-pocket breezes–these gorgeous phrases are woven through this homage to a beautiful marriage cut short by illness. Mittleman is a poet of the senses, a citizen of Alive. Look up! An eleven o’clock sun deepening emerald shadows. Eyes on us: black bear. This is a journeying love song where memories have become the cartographers, sketching their own maps. Follow his heartbeat through this striking topography of love and loss.”
–Katrin Talbot, author of The Devil Orders a Latte
“Whether it’s fixing the porch light in Decatur or climbing a twisted staircase in southern Italy, Monty Mittleman’s inaugural collection Recalibrations, details a lifelong journey with his beloved: rare earth metals, magnetized, with rust belt smiles, fulfilling dreams, growing old on porch swings, desiring to be albatross, until the dreaded hourglass runs out, with a promise to meet again, at heaven’s gate. Mittleman’s chapbook brimming with distinct cinquain, haibun, & visual poems, offers its hand, asks you to join along on the climbs, paddles, road trips, windy days, stinging sweats, and brown edges. Hear the rhythmic sound of Texas pump jacks, the shrill cry of the trench whistle, as you go into battle, and the brass sounds of jazz through heated Nola night air. This collection of deftly crafted poems can easily be enjoyed in one sitting but will leave you wanting to read it over and over again.”
–Camille Norvaisas, author of Rare as the Kotuku
“In the compressed perfection of their form and the purity of their language these poems achieve a kind of pearlescence. Facets implicate a roundness, as Emerson suggested we find in the arc of any given truth the circle of its beauty. Recalibrations pulses with love, grief, wonder, loss, and, always, a gentle resilience deriving from the resilience of the natural world. There is an elegiac energy throughout, a feeling that love and loss are of a piece, that beauty–his partner’s, his children’s, that of a pumpkin patch or of sunlight warming the backs of stallions–is present to us but in passing. For tightness of expression and large-heartedness, for playful canniness and wisdom, I doubt there’s a more accomplished poet at work today than Mittleman.”
–Terence Culleton, author of A Tree and Gone
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Monty Mittleman is an emerging poet who will have his first chapbook published by Finishing Line Press in 2026. His work has also been featured in Starboard Press, First Light Journal, Inkwell II (anthology published by the Decatur Area Poets), Highland Park Poetry’s Winter Muses’ Gallery. He won Honorable Mention for a poem that will be published in Highland Park Poetry’s 2026 anthology and posted in their spring Muses’ Gallery. Highland Park poetry 2026 poetry challenge: carnivals and carousels/musical instruments/Sijo. Available on Amazon. Monty has earned an MPA from San Diego State University and a BS from Illinois State University. Two of Monty’s poems have been accepted to be published in First Light Journal, Spring 2026 Poetry Contest and Journal. Monty Mittleman retired from the State of Illinois and is a licensed EMT.
FROM THE BOOK:
Green Fields
by Monty Mittleman
My soul, light are the lips I have kissed
and soft the skin I have lain on.
Your lucent light bringing hope,
a guide through thorn bushes.
I am a forest,
you my Shepherd.
Hew a path
to green
fields.
Our Time
by Monty Mittleman
First light.
Red winged blackbirds,
blushed Golden Rod, trilling.
Soundlessly breaking the surface:
tail fins.
Diagnosis
by Monty Mittleman
The warren smelled of dandelions and fresh cut grass. An American smell, in those sweet corn years before the leaves started dropping. How we hated windy days, when you couldn’t help notice the bare places. The air tastes husky and coyotes howl from the wind breaks.
fearless lad
sinks up to his neck
in the Passchendaele mud
Social Media contacts for the author:
Instagram @montymittleman,
FB-Monty Mittleman poet, Tumblr @montymittleman.
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