We are pleased to announce that Water, Rocks, and Trees is now available in paperback worldwide. This is the debut collection of poet James Scott Smith. The book was given an Honorary Mention in the 2015 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize.
The praise has been pouring in for Smith’s thoughtful work. Catherine Abbey Hodges, author of Instead of Sadness declares “…the work of a gracious and trusty guide, observant, nimble, never didactic, ever an acolyte of the infinite.” Catherine Strisik, author of The Mistress and Thousand Cricket Song reflects, “In his first collection of poems, Water, Rocks and Trees, James Scott Smith kneels and prays alongside creation, and becomes the utterance of the naked soul.” Mary Reynolds Thompson, author of Embrace Your Inner Wild and Reclaiming the Wild Soul writes “…Smith revels in the intelligence and vibrancy of the more than human world. Here, man doesn’t conquer nature—he converses with it. It is a conversation I didn’t want to end.” and it goes on! (Read more reviews)
Enjoy a selection from Water, Rocks, and Trees below. Look for the book in your local indie bookstore or on Indiebound.org, Amazon, B&N or right here in the Homebound Publications store.
The Shore
I read the skies and
am rendered silent.
This would be a day
for walking long on
shores of vast expanse.
I have been the sort of man
I fear would rise again in moments of
resolve. When I see him on the
street or in the pew or in the
mirror, his translucence quivers
close to the frequency of
fleshliness until I blink him down
into the backwash, into the
riptide of graces, for he was full of
judgment.
So I must walk.
The tall grass of the
dunes is tossing like the
ocean’s anemone.
Waves are faithful of the
sands shaped unseen under the
great breathing of the tides.
Wind upon grasses.
Waves upon sand. Some
steady drawing of my surfaces
out into the depths and gone,
out into the piercing light.
Return for more, o mighty
patience, o mighty
love of the wild and
unspeakable, til I am
wind and wave.