Gary Metras

Perfectbound Paperback, 88 pages, $15.95

 

White Storm, the latest collection by elder poet Gary Metras, is significant for its inspired combination of lyricism and imagery, its wisdom and its meditative tone.  Metras is a master of evocative statement and insight, one of the best poets of his generation operating in small press or large.  Here are forty-eight new poems that address universal themes in fresh language.  Metras’ poetry is associative yet grounded in the natural world, the work of a mature poet whose art has improved with age.  From White Storm, the stunningly evocative title poem, the theme of the collection evolves to illustrate the fragility of lives in the context of life going on.  The long poem Turning The Wheel is a poetic commentary on the storm of images, experiences and perceptions that mark a life.  Each poem in the book reveals another facet of the theme, and each is a hand-cut gem. Metras leads his readers on an intense journey that lovers of pure poetry will cherish.

Destiny’s Calendar: “Metras writes moving meditations on our lives, and on his own. His language is direct and unpretentious. His music has a full and faultless sound….In almost every poem there is a surprising passage of insight….Metras is an authentic, unpretentious moving voice.  These are poems to read aloud, linger over, and share with friends” 
— Robert Peters, Connecticut Poetry Review

“[Seagull Beach]’s feel, heft, and contents are an evocative experience”    
— Virginia Quarterly Review

Until There Is Nothing Left: “Metras is writing a mytho-poetry here of stones and bridges, water and our bodies, the outer and inner places, the landscapes of mind and heart….Again and again, the poet goes through the threshold of the daily into the aware life that lies somewhere beyond words yet is rendered in the poem”    — Larry Smith, Small Press Review

The Moon in the Pool: “These poems in total beget silence and contemplation. Like fast moving water from ice-packed heights, Metras’ words fall over us, crystalline and cleansing. Their impact: indisputably bracing.”                    — Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene

“The Moon in the Pool is the work of a seasoned poet, a writer accustomed to having his way with words. But there is more to these poems; they make us what we already are. In other words, they tap into our shared humanity.”                      — Elvis Alves, The Compulsive Reader