The Powow River Poets Anthology II

Rhina P. Espaillat · Deborah Warren · A.M. Juster

tammi 2021 · Able Muse Press

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The Powow River Poets Anthology II continues the tradition of memorable poetry from the Powow River Poets. This group of uniquely talented, award-winning writers is centered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, but includes members from the Boston area and from as far away as New York and Maine. Twenty-seven poets are represented in this volume of the anthology, including Rhina P. Espaillat, A.M. Juster, and Deborah Warren. Here, find masterful poems in form and free verse, on an eclectic range of subjects spanning the domestic to the global, celebrations to mourning, the whimsical to the heartbreaking. It is especially a showcase of the formal prowess of these accomplished poets. The dazzling array of given and nonce forms, including blank verse, triolet, abecedarian, sonnet, villanelle, sestina, and more will inspire with many examples of craftsmanship heightening emotional engagement and insight.

PRAISE FOR THE POWOW RIVER POETS ANTHOLOGY II:

Dedicated to the late Powow River Poet, David Berman, The Powow River Poets Anthology II continues in the splendid tradition of the group’s previous tome, published in 2006. Twenty-seven poets touch on themes ranging from the simple joys of friendship, nature, and art, to the complex issues of faith and doubt, love and loss. Guffaw-inducing humor and biting wit abound, as well as solemn reflections on suicide, domestic violence, social injustice, betrayal, illness, aging, and death. In Rhina P. Espaillat’s beautiful villanelle, “Guidelines,” included in this collection, the poet wisely urges us to find something to love, perhaps “a line of verse . . . that feels like the world’s heart since time began.” Beyond question, the poems in The Powow River Poets Anthology II echo the world’s heart.

—Catherine Chandler, author of Pointing Home

It might be far-fetched to suggest that the Muses have sprinkled a generous share of their gifts into the waters of the Powow River . . . [near] the historic town of Newburyport . . . where the Powow River Poets established their home base three decades ago—but how else to explain the lyric fluency, robust talent, and refreshing wit that consistently distinguish this group?

—Leslie Monsour (from the introduction), author of The House Sitter

The Powow River Poets are a group known for their concern with the craftsmanship of verse, and for the formal dexterity and precision of their poems—qualities profusely exemplified in this new collection. As might be expected, there are tricky forms in abundance here—sonnets, villanelles, triolets, a sestina—but what is so memorable about so many of the poems is their continual precision of observation and depth of nuanced feeling. To paraphrase Pope, come for the flow of reason, stay for the feast of soul. This is a really delightfully various and moving collection, one to browse happily in and return to often.

—Dick Davis, author of Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The Powow River Poets are a gathering of widely published, award-winning New England poets, centered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, but including members from the Boston area and from as far away as New York and Maine. More about the Powow River Poets can be found at powowriverpoets.com.

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Paulette Demers Turco began writing verse when she learned she soon would be a grandmother. She took Rhina P. Espaillat’s Lyceum poetry course and joined Alfred Nicol’s poetry workshop. Her poetry has appeared in the Lyric, Ibbetson Street, the Sonnet Scroll feature of the Poetry Porch, Merrimac Mic Anthologies (II–V), Poems for Plovers (Hawk & Whippoorwill, 2020), and the 2020 Hippocrates Awards Anthology. In 2018, Finishing Line Press published her chapbook, In Silence, and she became a member of the Powow River Poets. She co-organizes Powow bimonthly poetry readings. Her awards include the Robert Frost Poetry Award; commendation in the FPM-Hippocrates Health Professional Prize for Poetry and Medicine; first prize in the Rockport Ekphrastic Poetry Contest; and an MFA in Writing President’s Award at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She earned her MFA in writing from Lesley University in 2019 and in the same year, also retired from academic and clinical optometry. She lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts.