Embrace, 32 pages of poems
$
12.00
Big Table Publishing Company Chapbook Series
Winner of the Kinglsey Tufts Poetry Award, Alan Shapiro says “Embrace is about the fundamental human need for love, a big, risky subject handled with admirable poise. Poignant and thoughtful, witty and intense, these poems hold the reader in a verbal embrace and don't let go.”
John Amen (Pedestal Magazine) compares these poems to the spirit of love poetry found in Petrarch, Philip Sidney, and even Elizabeth Browning: “(Lader) brings a deep sense of the contemporary, his intimate images and references effectively placing the timelessness of romantic love within modern contexts. His language is rich with description and melody, passion and humor, wisdom and celebration. This is a delightful collection.”
Leah Browning of Apple Valley Review says “An erotic, sensual undercurrent runs through the poems in Bruce Lader’s most recent collection. Whether he’s describing an intimate moment, a quarrel, or the rich, musical qualities of a relationship, the work is strong yet subtle.”
Words don't mean as much as doing./ Showing means he really loves you, reassures the teenager in “Quiet Room,” the first poem of this latest collection by Bruce Lader. Sweetly warm and wise but with a touch of melancholy, Embrace takes us on journeys of love and longing against an exquisite backdrop of goldfinches, raspberries and sunflowers.
Step 1 of an esoteric text in “How To Bring a Marriage Good Luck” advises At twilight, stop what you are doing/ and go outside. Balance on one foot/ twelve seconds. If a sweet gum branch/ doesn’t fly through the roof,/ postpone lawn mowing, or another/ detestable task. You won’t get into/ any quarrels for three days. In “Things in Her Life He Would Love to Be,” a husband regrets that he cannot be a cat she dandles for hours/ on the sofa, brushes into light.
In “Rabbit Eyes” a jaunty, yet intriguingly furtive, husband returns from picking blueberries
...he rubs juice stains off,
saunters up the slope, hands his wife
a bowl half full, fingerprints on every berry.
Everything I have is yours, he boasts.
They nibble as the clouds turn navy,
and the truth of his wandering
remains unspoken, concealed in shadows.
Winner of the Kinglsey Tufts Poetry Award, Alan Shapiro says “Embrace is about the fundamental human need for love, a big, risky subject handled with admirable poise. Poignant and thoughtful, witty and intense, these poems hold the reader in a verbal embrace and don't let go.”
John Amen (Pedestal Magazine) compares these poems to the spirit of love poetry found in Petrarch, Philip Sidney, and even Elizabeth Browning: “(Lader) brings a deep sense of the contemporary, his intimate images and references effectively placing the timelessness of romantic love within modern contexts. His language is rich with description and melody, passion and humor, wisdom and celebration. This is a delightful collection.”
Leah Browning of Apple Valley Review says “An erotic, sensual undercurrent runs through the poems in Bruce Lader’s most recent collection. Whether he’s describing an intimate moment, a quarrel, or the rich, musical qualities of a relationship, the work is strong yet subtle.”
Words don't mean as much as doing./ Showing means he really loves you, reassures the teenager in “Quiet Room,” the first poem of this latest collection by Bruce Lader. Sweetly warm and wise but with a touch of melancholy, Embrace takes us on journeys of love and longing against an exquisite backdrop of goldfinches, raspberries and sunflowers.
Step 1 of an esoteric text in “How To Bring a Marriage Good Luck” advises At twilight, stop what you are doing/ and go outside. Balance on one foot/ twelve seconds. If a sweet gum branch/ doesn’t fly through the roof,/ postpone lawn mowing, or another/ detestable task. You won’t get into/ any quarrels for three days. In “Things in Her Life He Would Love to Be,” a husband regrets that he cannot be a cat she dandles for hours/ on the sofa, brushes into light.
In “Rabbit Eyes” a jaunty, yet intriguingly furtive, husband returns from picking blueberries
...he rubs juice stains off,
saunters up the slope, hands his wife
a bowl half full, fingerprints on every berry.
Everything I have is yours, he boasts.
They nibble as the clouds turn navy,
and the truth of his wandering
remains unspoken, concealed in shadows.
Comments on this book
Main Street Rag Publishing Co. 2009
The title, Landscapes of Longing, may sound as if it's the work of a Romantic Poet, but believe me, it isn't. The longing in this book is for justice, for lives lived without emotional and physical harm, for understanding of what retribution really means, and the complex aspects of true forgiveness. The poems are kinetic, clear-eyed, and brilliantly crafted. Bridged by classical Greek characters speaking in jazz-like solos, these interior views don’t let the reader off the hook for a second. Bruce Lader has brought us a powerful, unsparing, and yet tender book about the realities of self and culture that have assailed us since the beginning of human time.
--Kathryn Stipling Byer,
North Carolina Poet Laureate
"Landscapes of Longing does not hold back. Open it with care."
--Joanna Catherine Scott
From military battles to war’s rough parallels in schools, adolescence, and intimate relationships, Bruce Lader's “landscapes” present images of humanity's desperate existentialism as troubled boys "dodge and gamble to exist," squeezing every bit of life they can out of what they know to be tragically countable. And at the hub of the book "leaving no rock unturned," Sisyphus stands trial, an eternal symbol of striving brought
to light against the mountain of adversity.
--Scott Owens
--Kathryn Stipling Byer,
North Carolina Poet Laureate
"Landscapes of Longing does not hold back. Open it with care."
--Joanna Catherine Scott
From military battles to war’s rough parallels in schools, adolescence, and intimate relationships, Bruce Lader's “landscapes” present images of humanity's desperate existentialism as troubled boys "dodge and gamble to exist," squeezing every bit of life they can out of what they know to be tragically countable. And at the hub of the book "leaving no rock unturned," Sisyphus stands trial, an eternal symbol of striving brought
to light against the mountain of adversity.
--Scott Owens
Landscapes of Longing, 67 pages
$
16.00
Comments on this book
March Street Press 2005
The poems in Discovering Mortality are all focused on the most significant subject any poet can engage with: down-to-earth, day-to-day lived human experiences. With crystal clear language and subtle craftsmanship, Lader dramatizes relationships and conflicts of childhood (including children who are psychologically and socially at risk), the nuclear family, marriage, sex, death, war, and social concerns. The poems are imbued with Lader's reverence and unsentimental love for his subjects as well as the mystery of our interactions with the natural world.
--Gerald Barrax, Emeritus Professor of English at North Carolina State University
Vivid evocations of childhood, wry and pointed humor, pungent details, and telling episodes--Bruce Lader's first full-length book of poetry contains enough strong material for several volumes. Discovering Mortality is a maiden voyage not maidenly in the least!
--Fred Chappell
--Gerald Barrax, Emeritus Professor of English at North Carolina State University
Vivid evocations of childhood, wry and pointed humor, pungent details, and telling episodes--Bruce Lader's first full-length book of poetry contains enough strong material for several volumes. Discovering Mortality is a maiden voyage not maidenly in the least!
--Fred Chappell
Discovering Mortality, 80 pages
$
17.00
Buoy on the Water, 21 pages
Only three signed copies of this out-of-print chapbook remain.
$
5.00
