In June we announced the winner of the 2014 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize, Walker Abel for his collection, The Uncallused Hand. We will celebrate the release of this offering September 29, 2014! In the meantime, we’d like to offer you a little peek.
Triumph
You were born in aspen grove that much I know
or dreamed there at least in green quiver of afternoon.
Perhaps I should worry more about my own death
then watching nighthawks take wing just past sunset.
Or the twilight deer descending to meadow
opening your night robe with grazing lips.
I found a place in high rocks I may never go to again
unless ghosts can cry for one more chance at old triumphs.
And on ridge of scrubby sagebrush, sign of puma
scoured smell of a thousand miles walked alone.
An old lament longs to root in stone of this mountain
conform to one fissure of that dark content.
But bath in cold stream only scatters the trout
and bestows no access to your barefoot stroll as stars fade.
One of these years for sure when aspens turn yellow
you’re going to free my heart into the first frosty wind.
About the Author: Walker Abel lives in a remote home in the Yolla Bolly Mountains of northern California. As an undergraduate at University of California, Santa Cruz, in the mid-70’s, he participated in an environmental studies field program called Sierra Institute. Twelve years later, after completing a graduate program with ecopsychology pioneer Robert Greenway, he came back to teach for Sierra Institute, which he has done now for 26 years, while also taking on the role of director since 2003. Most of his poetry has been written in field journals while out on these academic programs, which are 9 weeks long and are entirely taught during a series of backpacking trips. It has not been unusual for Walker to teach three programs a year, amounting to a total of up to 6 months in the backcountry. One of his greatest joys is watching each new group of students open over time to the transformative influence of wilderness immersion. Walker has a 33 year old son (Stuart), who is also an ecopsychologist, backpacker, and nature-connection educator.
The Uncallused Hand
Poems by Walker Abel
Winner of the 2014 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize!
Release Date: September 29, 2014
When you pre-order through the Homebound Publications bookstore, we will ship your order a full two weeks ahead of the release date! Order will start shipping on September 10, 2014.
Pre-Order Now | List Price: $16.95 | Pre-Order Now>>
About the Book: This is poetry kindled by weeks in wilderness. Its muse is nature, which encompasses both the wild beauty of earth and the mystery of self and its sometimes erotic, sometimes mystical, relationship with the other. The poems are lyrical, tonal, evocative–enamored in a sensual way of being, but also drawn at times toward the counterpart of non-being. The palpable world of natural detail is brought forth, yet the poems also echo with nuance, innuendo, archetype, and both meditative as well as enraptured levels of realization.