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The Fraud of Eternity
The Fraud of Eternity is a compact, bleakly beautiful collection of poems that circles around death, suffering, and spiritual exhaustion in the industrial landscape of Lowell, Massachusetts. The book moves through four sections, from the cosmic brutality of “The Slaughterhouse” to the brick mills by the Merrimack, then into personal hauntings and finally toward a kind of hard, earthbound acceptance. The voice keeps reaching for images of slaughter, mud, ice, and machinery, and it does that through very strict rhyme and meter, what the author calls “The Dyad,” mostly ABAB patterns that hold the emotion inside tight little cages. References to Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and the French Symbolists appear both directly and through the tone, and the notes at the end make that lineage explicit.
As a reader, I was first grabbed by the sheer force of the language. The images have teeth. “The Monolith,” “The Wheel And The Knife,” and “The Venom Of Thought” all hit with a kind of controlled violence. The clock shaving off skin, the river turned into steel, the falls chewing the water like granite jaws, scenes like that stay with me. The strict rhyme and meter work well here. They act like restraints, and the emotion pushes against them until it starts to vibrate. I appreciate that discipline. In a time when so much poetry goes loose and drifty, the choice to stay formal feels bold and very deliberate. At times, I caught myself reading lines aloud just to feel the rhythm click into place, and that is usually a sign that the craft is doing its job.
The book insists again and again that heaven is empty and that the real, honest place is the “slaughterhouse” of the earth, the warm mud, the mills, the graveyard on a cold Sunday. Poems like “The Morning Star Rejected” and “The Warmth Of Hell” lean hard into that stance, and I felt both fascinated and unsettled. It is a defiantly anti-transcendent vision. No soft afterlife, no comforting light, only heat, soil, and repetition. For me, the most moving pieces are where that philosophy meets human tenderness. “Edson Cemetery (Sunday)” has a quiet envy of the dead that cut deeper than the louder cosmic lines. “The Dyad” turns a metaphysical idea into an intimate portrait of love as two pillars holding up one roof, never merging, still sharing the strain. The pairing of “Fear Not Death (Original)” and “Fear No Death (Eulogy)” adds another twist, one dark and nihilistic, the other gentler and consoling. That contrast made me feel like I was watching the poet argue with himself, and I liked that tension.
I would recommend The Fraud of Eternity to readers who enjoy dark, formally structured poetry, and to people who already feel at home with Baudelaire, Poe, or Jim Morrison’s more apocalyptic writing. It suits anyone who wants a serious, unflinching look at despair, religion, industry, and the body, and who does not mind walking through a very shadowy landscape to get there. If you want poems that stare straight into the night and refuse to look away, this collection will feel like exactly the right kind of trouble.
Pages: 38 | ASIN : B0GF9T4RCZ
White Knuckle
A collection of poetry that unearths the heartache and tragedies of child abuse. Steven Bruce has written a book about his experiences as a child afflicted by parental abuse and the abuse of the foster system. This collection of poems goes over several hard-hitting topics like addiction and substance abuse, domestic violence, verbal abuse and growing up homeless. White Knuckle is a heart-wrenching read for those who don’t see this pain every day and, hopefully, a comfort to those who are fighting similar demons; know that you’re not alone.
Bruce’s poems are very direct and leave little to the imagination. They are eloquently written. So, as someone who has had a happy childhood, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could be so inhumane to a child. I will confess I choked up several times reading about the abuse and pain Bruce went through. Some of the poems had me wondering if they relate to any myths or legends like Black Dog. There are folklore stories about demonic black dogs wandering cemeteries in search of lost souls to eat or guide to the afterlife/drag to hell. There is another story I found while looking up the myths about black dogs –newly created cemeteries would replace the first resident with a deceased black dog to save the person’s soul from going to hell. I’m not sure I see the reason for the last one, but Bruce’s poems, like this one, give a person pause to reflect on a deeper meaning.
There is no wrong way to write a poem as long as it has meaning to the poet. Readers will be pondering the meaning of some of the poems, like Sand and Moonlight, Street Gum and Avocado. There is a deeper meaning to these poems that is elusive yet potent.
White Knuckle is an intense and gritty collection of rousing poetry. I personally try to avoid these extremely emotional and heart-wrenching topics based solely on the fact I try to avoid crying but this is one book that I would definitely read again.
Pages: 102 | ASIN: B08HY35T2W
Always Inquisitive
Brent A. Ford Author Interview
A World of Wonder is designed to help parents and children build a sense of wonder about the world. I think it does this expertly. What was your inspiration for wanting to create such an engaging kids book?
My co-author and I are long-time educators currently working to bring high-quality, science curricula to primary schools across the country. In primary grades, science instruction often takes a back seat to other subjects and it is our goal to change that by creating resources that integrate science with reading (in this case poetry), writing and mathematics. Young children are natural-born scientists – always inquisitive of the world around them – so we are working to create materials that parents and teachers can use to foster and promote that innate interest. We also want to help parents and teachers inspire children to appreciate, and care for, our world as well as to provide opportunities to engage children in thinking and talking about science.
The art in this book is spectacular. What decisions went into the art direction for this book?
That is an interesting question because we had to think about so many things at the same time! We wanted to include all different types of science; we wanted to include some of those classic poems that many of us grew up with as well as some new ones; and we wanted to include topics that allowed for interesting extension activities that kids would want to come back to over and over again. So we had to weave all of those elements together at same time. We couldn’t just pick the best pictures or just use classic children’s poetry; everything had to work toward the larger goal of building that sense of wonder about the world and be really engaging to kids.
The combined variety of photos and poems are ideal for promoting conversation between parents and children. What poem and photo is your favorite and why?
Thank you – that was certainly our goal! My favorite combination is probably the poem about the eagle – the king of the daytime sky – along with that magnificent image of the eagle fishing – talons extended – above a partially frozen lake. That image is inspiring all by itself, but then the extension activity includes a link to a webcam of an eagle’s nest high in the tree tops above a field, with a stream in the distance. The webcam is always on and you can go back to it often throughout the year to see just about anything – from eggs, to hatchlings, to juvenile eagles just beginning to fly, to Mom and Dad eagle keeping warm through the winter – it’s always fascinating to watch. (It can also a bit graphic at times, so parents need to be careful with very young children.)
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Our science teaching units all use children’s literature as a foundation for the unit and we are in the process of releasing those books now on Amazon and iBooks – both as eBooks and as paperbacks. Several of the books, like When I Grow Up, include spectacular photography similar to this book, while others are fun storybooks. My favorite storybook is When We Were Young, which is a sweet story about Dr. Dolittle’s Pushme-Pullyou and includes really beautiful watercolor illustrations by an illustrator from London. That was a really fun project to work on!
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
![A World of Wonder by [Ford, Brent A., Hazlehurst, Lucy McCullough]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51iyKPisWAL.jpg?w=604&ssl=1)
A World of Wonder is a book designed to help children develop a wonder for, and an appreciation of, the world in which we all live. The book combines spectacular images with a variety of poetry and verse…from time-honored and classic to new and sometimes humorous.
This is not the type of book typically read in one session. We encourage readers to come and go as children ask questions about the world. Children can certainly experience the book on their own, but we also encourage parents and teachers to engage with children – ask questions to tease out their understanding of the world and provide guidance where and when it seems appropriate. We also encourage you to follow children’s leads to encourage their interests in our magnificent world.
The authors, both educators and researchers with many years of experience, ensure that each facet of the experience is scientifically and pedagogically appropriate for young children.
