  $17.00
First Edition (August 10, 2017) ISBN-13: 978-1947465039 Trade Paper 6" x 9" 127 pages Published by Kelsay Books Cover Artwork by Jan Boles |
LICHEN SONGS:
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“Venn is a poet of great heart for the majesty of place and creatures, of water running and the old trees still standing, for epics of the first people and those who came later, for the wilderness gone and the wilderness still left—inside and outside us.”
—Primus St. John, Communion
• • •
“In Lichen Songs George Venn, veteran Pacific Northwest scholar and bard, collects his poems that observe both sides of the wet-dry (West-East) divide. If you want to taste the rural Northwest on your tongue, turn to Venn’s poems.”
—O. Alan Weltzien, Exceptional Mountains
• • •
“What a detective of place George Venn is; how private his eyes are! Yet in Lichen Songs you come to know what a good man can make known, what an avid man can feel, and what, in George Venn's hands, the craft of poetry can do. He magnifies the landscape and what he sees turns to music—a choir of wheeling nature, students, family, lovers, still rooms. You will find much to care for in this bright man's new and selected work.”
—Dan Lamberton, On the River Through the Valley of Fire
• • •
“This is poetry of big love, great heart. George Venn's scale is immense and inclusive…. Like Tom McGrath, George Venn tells the stories of his region in such a way as to make them magical, luminous, and permanent…”
—James Bertolino, Ravenous Bliss
• • •
Inspired by insightful observations of nature, teaching, the hopes and disappointments of life—his and others'–Venn's work offers a realism rooted in his concrete experiences as a bee keeper, house builder, apple grower, musician, and teacher. Here are the eastern Oregon tomatoes picked green before the first frost, the deer in the bird feeder, the teacher pouring out life on dry ground, the happy and cruel memories of youth, the traveler who never planned to stay but is still here.
—Charles Coate (full review here)
• • •
"Venn’'s voice transcends the region of Eastern Oregon that feeds him its rocks and seasons, its people, its stories, which he sends echoing in finely named details into farther places. He finishes on a birdcall after a blizzard, not needing to make overt claims, but a call familiar everywhere in the world.
A wondrous book."
--Wayne Hill, UK, former Associate Editor, Performance Research (full review here)
—Primus St. John, Communion
• • •
“In Lichen Songs George Venn, veteran Pacific Northwest scholar and bard, collects his poems that observe both sides of the wet-dry (West-East) divide. If you want to taste the rural Northwest on your tongue, turn to Venn’s poems.”
—O. Alan Weltzien, Exceptional Mountains
• • •
“What a detective of place George Venn is; how private his eyes are! Yet in Lichen Songs you come to know what a good man can make known, what an avid man can feel, and what, in George Venn's hands, the craft of poetry can do. He magnifies the landscape and what he sees turns to music—a choir of wheeling nature, students, family, lovers, still rooms. You will find much to care for in this bright man's new and selected work.”
—Dan Lamberton, On the River Through the Valley of Fire
• • •
“This is poetry of big love, great heart. George Venn's scale is immense and inclusive…. Like Tom McGrath, George Venn tells the stories of his region in such a way as to make them magical, luminous, and permanent…”
—James Bertolino, Ravenous Bliss
• • •
Inspired by insightful observations of nature, teaching, the hopes and disappointments of life—his and others'–Venn's work offers a realism rooted in his concrete experiences as a bee keeper, house builder, apple grower, musician, and teacher. Here are the eastern Oregon tomatoes picked green before the first frost, the deer in the bird feeder, the teacher pouring out life on dry ground, the happy and cruel memories of youth, the traveler who never planned to stay but is still here.
—Charles Coate (full review here)
• • •
"Venn’'s voice transcends the region of Eastern Oregon that feeds him its rocks and seasons, its people, its stories, which he sends echoing in finely named details into farther places. He finishes on a birdcall after a blizzard, not needing to make overt claims, but a call familiar everywhere in the world.
A wondrous book."
--Wayne Hill, UK, former Associate Editor, Performance Research (full review here)
Photo by Marie Balaban
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poet, essayist, literary historian, editor, linguist, and educator, George Venn is a distinguished figure in western literature. In 1988, his third book, Marking the Magic Circle, was awarded a silver medal from Oregon Institute of Literary Arts. From 1989-1994, he designed and directed the OREGON LITERATURE SERIES for which he received the Stewart Holbrook Award for "outstanding contributions to Oregon's literary life." In 1999, West of Paradise was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. In 2005, the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission honored Marking the Magic Circle as "one of the 100 best Oregon books in two centuries." His C.E.S. Wood monograph Soldier to Advocate (2007) and his Word War II Fred Hill collection Darkroom Soldier have recently earned high praise. |