Nodin Press

Poetry

	So Surprised to Find You Here Bart Sutter 978-1-947237-48-3 / $19.95 pb This book of poems is rich in stories set in the poet’s home ground of northern Minnesota, and also on the backroads of New Mexico, Norway, Ireland, and Spain. Whatever the subject or locale, Sutter deftly captures those transcendent moments that keep us going, despite our disappointments and discouragements.
	Lines Tim Nolan 978-1-947237-46-9 / $17.00 pb In Lines Tim Nolan sustains a subtle balance between boyish whimsy, adult nostalgia, and cosmic speculation as he reflects on the foibles and delights of daily life in the Midwest, touching on political issues, travel, cats, The Iliad, TV commercials, and the smell of watermelon with unflagging humor and insight.
	Real Work Janna Knittel 978-1-947237-50-6 / $17.00 pb Knittel’s new collection celebrates natural environments that both inspire deeply and also assuage the wounds suffered due to personal crisis and loss. A wooden box on a desk, a father’s hands, the lives of rabbits and bees, a rare visit to church—these are a few of the subjects illuminated in these finely crafted pieces.
	Ambiguous Parables Ted Bowman ISBN: 978-1-947237-36-0 / 84 pages / $17.00 Ambiguous Parables explores those regions of experience we pass through, sometimes holding our breath or nervously whistling a merry tune, but more often caught up in inexplicable emotions we’d rather come to grips with than avoid. The loss of a loved one, for example.
	Summoned Margaret Hasse ISBN: 978-1-947237-38-4 / 100 pages / $17.00 In her new collection of poetry, Hasse explores the sorrows and delights of daily life through narratives and ruminations enlivened by her lightning-quick imagination and her care in choosing images to achieve the desired effect. Her attention ranges widely, from the counter-culture vibe of the distant past (as in “Summer of Love, 1967” and “Marijuana”) to the humor and acceptance of aging that enliven the present.
	Speaking in Riddles Sharon Chmielarz ISBN: 978-1-947237-34-6 / 76 pages paperback / $16.00 Riddles! They’re ancient! They’re half descriptive poem, half mind-teaser. These riddles range from easy to difficult. Their solutions can lead to interesting associative guesses, not to mention solo or group fun.
	Knucklehead Zach Czaia ISBN: 978-1-947237-39-1 / 80 pages / $17.00 Zach Czaia’s new poetry collection, Knucklehead, offers signposts, way stations, and commanding views along one person’s journey toward enlightenment and compassion through living a fully human life, day by day.
	Nordic Accordion - Poems in a Scandinavian Mode Bart Sutter 978-1-947237-04-9 / $19.95 In his earliest years, the author heard people talk Norwegian in farm kitchens and on the streets in town, and there were Finns, Danes, and Icelanders in the neighborhood, too. The music of these Nordic languages got inside Sutter’s head; he also inherited the homesickness of old-timers who spoke about a legendary land they called The Old Country. In Nordic Accordion Sutter fulfills the covenant he made with his elders long ago—to dramatize, critique, and honor their struggles, their culture, their peculiar ways. The book explores the experience of Scandinavian immigrants, their ancestors, and their descendants.
	Stars Above, Stars Below Margaret Hasse 978-1-947237-05-6 / $17 This reissue of Stars Above, Stars Below, originally published in 1984, will reacquaint readers with the early work of Margaret Hasse, one of that remarkable generation of women poets who came of age in the 1970s. Readers approaching her work for the first time are in for a treat, while those who are familiar with her more recent books may recognize some of the same themes: delight in sensual experience, understanding of life’s fragility, appreciation for the largess of memory, and rapt engagement with the natural world, especially the prairies and lakes of the Midwest.
	Chimes Michael Dennis Browne 978-1-947237-00-1 / $16 Michael Dennis Browne has gathered together short poems from every phase of his long career into chapters focusing on childhood, nature, private anxieties and irrationalities, extended family, and other themes variously spacious and personal. Some have the ring of nursery rhymes, others the melancholy lilt of an elegy, the blunt force of an occasional poem by Yeats, or the enigmatic resonance of a passage from scripture.
	little eternities Sharon Chmielarz 978-1-935666-99-8 / $17 The poet muses on history, memory, language, lost love, and the rain on the roof in this very personal collection. It's chock full of humor and subtle charm, eliciting comparisons to both the brilliant wordplay of Marianne Moore and the subtle metaphysics of Wisława Szymborska. Humor abounds in poems such as “Size,” which describes the world inhabited by a woman who wears a size 0 dress, and a series of reflections about a Halloween pumpkin containing the line "Humans want their gods to look like them / and lead them through the dark."
	Between Us Margaret Hasse 978-1-935666-91-2 / $17 The themes in Margaret Hasse’s new collection range from European travel to reconnecting with distant friends, from knitting to learning to ride a bike. Always thoughtful, un-labored, fresh, her images stir and occasionally provoke us to share affections and antipathies as they come to life on the printed page.
	Chester Creek Ravine Haiku Bart Sutter ISBN: 978-1-935666-75-2 84 pages, $16.00 The 150 haiku contained in this book—tiny poems with large implications—conjure those revelatory moments alongside Chester Creek, a stream that drops dramatically through the city of Duluth on its final run to Lake Superior. Sutter honors the haiku tradition by sticking close to the classical form, alluding to the seasons, and choosing subjects from the natural world, but his haiku are fully contemporary and include surprises, too, while his subtle use of rhyme helps rivet these impressions in the reader’s mind.
	What to Pray For poems 978-1-935666-73-8 118 pages, $16.00 In this new collection, Michael Kiesow Moore brings imagination and insight to subjects drawn from personal history and cultural experiences ranging from cooking to dance, myth, and music. Childhood traumas and the persecution of those who are “different” provide the subtext for poems of sometimes surprising whimsy and freshness. Homey images sit side by side with scenes of angelic splendor, and compassion for troubled souls spurs theological reflections buoyed less by logic than passionate imagery.
	Earth's Appetite Margaret Hasse 978-1-935666-50-9 92 pages, $16.00 The book reminds us of the quirky ways that lives unfold, with rich and varied connections, relationships, and experiences, as Hasse explores various appetites––for adventure, sex, rural landscapes, home, love––from the shifting points of view of a parent, child, lover, or friend.
	Cloves & Honey Athena Kildegaard 6x9, 108 pp, $16.00 978-1-935666-36-3 Cloves & Honey came about as the result of the author’s year-long discipline of writing a single love poem every day—a daunting but also deeply satisfying project. The best of these poems, winnowed and reworked but as fresh as the day they were written, have been gathered here into a single volume that tracks the seasons, the various forms love can take, the ebb and flow of domestic affection, and a host of other themes captured in daily interactions with family, friends, and the surrounding countryside. In a time of anxiety and unrest, Cloves and Honey explores the mysterious power of love to heal, enliven, and inspire.
	Milk and Tides Margaret Hasse 6x9, 76 pp. $16.00 978-1-932472-75-2 In this lyrical collection Margaret Hasse covers a wide range of experience, from adoption and childrearing to reflections on war, the changing seasons, and hand-me-down clothes. Some of the poems are meditative, others are humorous, but they invariably spring from close observation and the deft use of images to expose the beauty, challenge, and mystery of common life.
	The Wind Blows, the Ice Breaks: Poems of Loss and Renewal by Minnesota Poets edited by Ted Bowman and Elizabeth Bourque Johnson 6 x 9 (pb) 208 pp $19.95 ISBN: 978-1-935666-00-4 This anthology contains a wide array of poems by Minnesota poets dealing with the experience of personal loss, grief, and recovery. Among the specific themes are divorce, the death of a child, and giving up a child for adoption. The selections also include moving descriptions of healing and the return of high spirits. Among the poets included are Deborah Keenan, Wang Ping, John Berryman, James Wright, and Robert Bly.

© 2006 Nodin Press