Review of Charles Atkinson poetry

* Because We Are Men * Fossil Honey * The Only Cure I Know * World News, Local Weather
* About Charles Atkinson

World News, Local Weather (2013)

Buy World News, Local Weather (ISBN 1-6222950-3-X, 32 pages, Finishing Line Press): at Finishing Line Press .

Buy World News, Local Weather at amazon

This chapbook's manuscript was a deserved prizewinner in the 2013 poetry contest sponsored by Finishing Line Press.

The poems are beautiful and powerful.

"Pronghorn, West of Rawlins" is particularly engaging, as it describes the way the poet used up one of his nine lives in a steep and snowy descent on black ice. I was lucky enough to hear Atkinson read on KUSP radio (see kusp.org for a podcast). That poem especially caught my ear because I was driving down a steep rain-slicked hill when I heard it. Not only did it give a powerful description of his driving experience, but it concluded with a deep-breath scene in nature when the driver could finally pull to a halt at the side of the road, and could see from within his intact yet fragile skull:


                               At the snowfence
         three pronghorn lift their delicate heads.

This contrast gives the poem the graceful feeling of of a haibun, even though it is not laid out as such.

The poet Joseph Stroud writes:

The poems in World News, Local Weather meld the political with the personal, and a narrative voice with a lyrical voice that is unique to Charles Atkinson. The poems play out on a large canvas: Baghdad, Lhasa, San Quentin Prison ... but Atkinson's focus is always up-close, with a marvelous eye for detail.

Fossil Honey (2006)

Buy 'Fossil Honey' Buy Fossil Honey (ISBN 0-9716373-9-3, 96 pages, Hummingbird Press):
  1. Order at the Hummingbird Press web site.
  2. Or, ask your local book store to order this book of glorious poems.

See other Hummingbird Press poets:

Because We Are Men (2006)

The Only Cure I Know (1991)


About Charles Atkinson

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

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