Peter Meinke is one of the most readable poets. The surface clarity of his lines and his aptness for metaphor make these poems accessible and mysterious. They have real subjects – Dessert Storm and acorns, coffee and Tolstoy – but at the same time give entry to that interior world where all feelings and moralities grow.
More Praise
Peter Meinke writes, it is clear, beneath a banner of wisdom. His gift in this book is graciously to record the scars inflicted on the body and sould by family life, aging, love and music and joy, the helplessness in this violent world of one who wants 'nothing but peace' yet feels 'my hair come to attention; when the military band marches by. I wish I had written 'The Parade,' 'Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind' (a funny and sad sestina) and many other poems in this book. They say truth, and they say it with rue, shapeliness, a wonderful band on the keyboard of metaphor.
Peter Meinke is emeritus professor of creative writing at Eckerd College. He has published numerous books of poetry, including Scars, Zinc Fingers, Liquid Paper, and The Contracted World: New & More Selected Poems. Meinke is the recipient of many awards, including the Olivet Prize, the Paumanok Award, three Poetry Society of America Awards, the Flannery OĆConnor Award, and two NEA Fellowships. In 2009 he was appointed the first Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida.