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INTRODUCTIONNearly all of the poems included in Riversong are new.They are expressions of personal love, transcendentalrealization, and my deep involvement with nature and music.STREAM. . .RIVER. . .FLOW, that starts off the FOREVERSONGS Section, for example, is a journey from youth's firstrealization of the power of music, when as a nine-year-oldboy, lying in bed, I held a plastic radio up to my ear, listeningto "The Grand Ol' Opry," and heard for the first time themagical guitar of Chet Atkins. I had never heard anythingremotely like what he was doing with his music. I was transportedinto the first heaven I had ever known.That musical experience awakened me to the realizationthat life itself is a stream, a river, an eternal flowng thatforever surrounds us and infuses us and carries us throughwaves of music, which only sometimes do we become awareof. Life is a RIVERSONG filled with light, fire, and beauty.Life itself is that RIVERSONG.As my life streamed on, other adventures appearedto me in that music flow - such as running away fromhome in Big Spring west Texas as a 14-year-old boy, hitchhikingto Memphis, stealing a row boat, and sailing downthe Mississippi River.That journey was the first of many adventures thatriver-streamed through my life, including learning how todrink beer as a college student, how to make love, and, lateron, how to play guitar, which hearkened me back to the musicof Chet Atkins. STREAM. . .RIVER. . .FLOW also includesa mini-biography of my journey as the lead guitarist with a"wild-haired singer" (which some readers will recognize asTim Buckley.)

We can create a new civilization with our dreams, thoughts, feelings, and actions-and many of us are already doing so. Our current civilization is beyond saving because it is totally unsustainable. Gaia needs us to listen, to learn from our elders who lived, and even flourished, for billions of years through her ever-changing ways and ages. The rocks, trees, insects, and the millions of species that call Earth home have wisdom of tremendous value to share with us if we are open to experiencing and witnessing them. Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, describes, for example, lessons that we could draw from the many different mosses. Once we consider the elements that make up our world, know them for the great beings they are-beginning with water, the basis of all life-we can align ourselves with natural laws, or core principles. These natural laws affirm the necessity for giving and receiving, and the value of meeting each being's unique needs. Utopian! one might exclaim. Yet every day it becomes clearer that our very survival depends on our alignment with these fundamental laws. The Covid pandemic has revealed our utter dependency on each other, has shown us what is essential and non-essential work, as well as the fragility of our institutions based on man-made laws that have little relationship to the miraculous beings that shape every moment of our days, starting, yes, with the molecules we breathe, expressed as a breeze of flowing waves through branches, bushes, grasses, birdsong, and the dreams we share.

I met James shortly after starting work in Yosemite National Park. Meeting James was a fortuitous event in my life. We began meeting at Degan's Deli for morning lattes and began conversations that continued for months and then years. We talked about myriad topics including philosophy, politics, music, literature, and poetry. His depth and ease of conversation was enlivening and eventually lead to beginning Poetic Matrix Press. James had been creating small handwritten poetry books (3 X 4 inches) of his poetry. We went on to do chapbooks of his, mine and other's poetry. After these we started producing full length paperback books. Starting with his book Merge with the River, Brandon Cesmat's Driven into the Shade, Tomas Gayton's Winds of Change and my book Dark Hills and Wild Mountains, and over 80 books in 23 years; the Press continues. James began an on-going series of live events titled Words Performance in Yosemite with poetry and music. The series continued for many years. This book of The James Downs Book of Poems - Low Temples is indeed James at his best. In it is his love of Joyce, the mountains of Yosemite, of philosophy, politics, music, literature, and poetry. It touches some of who he is, and it will touch you if you let it. James passed on October 10, 2020.

Cloudbreak is an act of San Francisco, kaleidoscope of fog and hills, wooden back stairs, relic garden plantings, monterey cypress and redwood trees. Heather Estes has created an intricate portrait of place quite separate from the version that appears in popular fiction. This is a recognizable ''tetris''. -Kim Shuck  7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco EmeritaHeather Saunders Estes shows, through Cloudbreak, the capacity to live and work at something important; something that advances the social life of the community (women/men) all of us and as well find the beauty of place. Her 37 years as CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California put her in the middle of some of the most significant social conversations of our time. And, as Kim Shuck noted, she finds the beauty of San Francisco and lets all this come through her poetry. We are graced with fine poetry from someone who has something to say and the craft to say it well.

"For those who enjoy poetry as parable, In the Language of Lost Light illustrates one truth after another. For those who enjoy heraldry and pageantry, legend and lore, it revisits our most familiar recitals. Delve into timeless truths set in the tradition of Arthur, the metaphysical framework of Dante-and in the here and now." The Activist Group, formed in the 1930s around Lawrence Hart, might be described as neo-Modernists. The Activist credo is that every word in a poem should be poetically "active," employing some kind of highly focused poetic technique-a principle not as self-evident as it might sound. Among the group's signature techniques are clusters of intense metaphoric imagery and a preference for associational, rather than narrative organization. Patricia Nelson has worked with the "Activist" group of poets in California for many years. In the Language of Lost Light follows the Activist credo. "Once again, Patricia Nelson grips the conscience with things beyond our grasp, holds us tight in suggestion, white space, and open air. Here's a study of the thin line between the essence and the interpreted, drawn out in quiet awe and wonder." (Material drawn from Jeff Santosuosso.)

We Stand Up For What's Right is intended for children between the ages of 5-10 years old, and teaches the importance of civic engagement and democratic decision making to advance a more peaceful society. After King Lion demands that his subjects go to war, the villagers hold a meeting under the moon and decide together that they want a say in war decisions.This book emphasizes the value of community decision making, speaking truth to power, especially in times of war, and how standing up for what's right can advance peace and justice for all. This is a story inspired by the historic 2019 passage of the Yemen War Powers Resolution, to end US military support for the Saudi-UAE led coalition's war in Yemen and written to tell younger generations born after 9/11, who have never lived in an America not at war, that war is not the answer, war is not inevitable and there are better ways to resolve our differences. Angelyca Moffatt's 22 illustrations beautifully advances the story keeping children engaged throughout..

Chronicles in Passing is a collection of formal and free verse poems about the incredible, enduring power of the written word to capture and preserve thoughts, emotions, and events. The word chronicles, associated with being a factual written account of history and record keeping, is used for contrast with classroom early reader words like "see Spot run," yet both reflect the times they were written. We remember encountering Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, and Hamlet-struggling to understand the strange words and culture and can but wonder what those following us will think about us. Chronicles are written by a select group (usually the winners), so caution is advised; individuals do not see things the same (remember the fable about each of the blind men describing an elephant)? And women were left out in the earliest days from the realm of scribes involved with keeping track of commerce of the Sumerians around 3200 BC and are still involved in catching up.I find writing in formal style enjoyable and now view them like presenting a box wrapped in special paper with a bow: giving readers something extra. There are times though, that words in free verse work better in conveying the intended message. Also, what works as a villanelle will not as a triolet and as such, perhaps is better as free verse-so all one can do is try what fits like Goldilocks. Sometimes grasping for the right words ends in the Unfinished File, or in the full Trash Icon.

Joan Baranow's powerful new collection of poems, In the Next Life, reminds us that it is our passage through this life that constantly shapes the next. Our place in and passages through the natural world reflect both the questions of childhood and those few wisdoms we hope to share as adults. Always, the speaker of these poems ("closer to the end/than to birth, dreaming of death" she says) recalls a boy's question: "How does light climb the tree?" In these elegant poems of daily mortal passage, Joan Baranow is also asking, in every line, how might we, each of us, slowly climb that light? These are poems of constancy and moral courage.-David St. John, author of The Last Troubadour: Selected and New Poems

What he has assembled here is a set of poems written in the aftermath of a divorce. I like this book so much that I am almost grateful for the divorce, because without it, I doubt we would have such a window into this gentle soul. Here there is pain, and joy, and something that straddles them, what John at times refers to as “beauty.”The poetry is disarmingly mature. He’s not trying to impress the grownups because he knows he is one of them, and is in fact contending with being among the elderly—quite a shock to those of us who remember dressing in bandanas, discovering the legends of rock music, and marching against war. We were there celebrating youth, and now we are old. Oh well.But as John points out, sublime moments, the kind we think of as “beautiful” are lost in coarse environments, which is it seems, where John concludes. With several poetic statements about the resurgence of war culture, like our own, John calls us back to our younger halves, the ones that marched oh, say, 50 years ago. Many things of beauty came out of this vortex, in part, perhaps, we were able to be vigilant in opposing it—but not vigilant enough. - Peter Friesen, from the Introduction

The technical expertise in this poetry is often striking, beautiful—but not the main gift. It is a book on how to live in a world of war and fear and money without defensiveness. The silence the words come from frees you from your masks. You descend into an unfolding center, each expression leading inward. Boldly tender and clear-sighted, Conjugal’s voice dissolves categories—political, lyrical, magical, technical. It is the voice of an interconnected being that passionately laments world desecration while continuing to offer itself unconditionally. It frees us from cynicism.  —Gene Berson, poet and author of Raveling Travel

Writing the natural world Chris Olander cracks down to the elements, his senses, the crystal beings themselves, trees, birds, fish, bear, big cats, mountains, and his central metaphor, the river--water purls throughout, rivers, creeks, streams--these crystal beings in their motions and flow. The sacred. River Light offers us the ecopoet's gut choice, commodity and pollution versus natural reverence. His elemental writing lets us see, feel, taste the way to go. Richard Silberg, author of "The Horses: New and Selected Poems" and "Deconstruction of the Blues"; associate editor of Poetry Flash.

(CarolSmallwood's) greatest strengths lie in her own original content, and in that respect, A Matter of Selection soars not only as a follow-up to her past collections, but also as an independent entry into the modern poetic landscape. Be it the personal touches inside the profound, "The Universe," the sensory allusions of "A Chemo Visit," the domestic snapshots shaping "The Sewing Box," or the startling social commentary beneath the short and simple "Examples," Smallwood ensures that just about every piece is surprising, unique, and resonant. As such, A Matter of Selection is a tour-de-force illustration of the potentials of poetry.-Jordan Blum, founder, editor-in-chief, The Bookends Review

August 2010, the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, is much in the news media after all these years. "Still what we have mostly missed in all the reporting is the intimacy of a poet''s voice who can bring the real right up inside us. Lyn Lifshin''s volume of straight forward, exact poetry in KATRINA does this. There is a clear ungarnished force to her words that gives us the chance to bring our own sense of loss, grief and compassion into the lives of those who have been drawn into such an event." - from the Preface.Lyn Lifshin is one of the most important award winning poetic voices of our times published as she is in most literary and poetry magazines. Her poem, NO MORE APOLOGIZING, has been called "among the most impressive documents of the women''s poetry movement," by Alicia Ostriker.

Although Yearn Choi identifies himself as an ordinary man, his has been a remarkable life...the odyssey of a Korean in America. Naturally, because it is a memoir, this book explores the theme of identity. What does life on the hyphen (Korean-American) mean for his generation versus his children''s generation? Yet the author''s journey intersects with the trajectory of this country in the midst of struggle and transformation. What is America? Choi lived, studied, and worked in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Deep South, and the nation''s capital over four decades, while the U.S. was in the throes of the civil rights, anti-war, anti-nuclear, and environmental movements.Artful, informative, heartfelt, provocative, and always engaging, Choi''s memoir will prove an invaluable and unique contribution to American and Asian Studies by a seminal poet and incisive scholar. With Song of Myself, Yearn Hong Choi immediately signals Walt Whitman. Yet he rivals Whitman in style and exceeds Whitman in scope. from the Forward by Ellen Olmstead, Professor of English, Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland

This book is really three books in one. It is a guidebook for a walking/cycling route across California that follows John Muir''s footsteps from San Francisco to Yosemite via the Pacheco Pass. It is an adventure book, telling the story of Peter and Donna Thomas'' 2006 ramble across California to discover that route. And finally it is a history book, presenting in its entirety and for the first time, the complete story of John Muir''s first trip to Yosemite. That trip was taken in 1868, the year before Muir''s "First Summer in the Sierra," and it has never been published before, existing in obscurity, in Muir''s various writings, until it was reconstructed by Peter and Donna in preparation for their walk to Yosemite in his footsteps.

"At the 50th Anniversary Beat Conference at NYU in 1994, Gregory Corso led off his part of the Town Hall Concert with the statement that poets should bring the News of the Day to the community. . . Since then I've taken it upon myself, prior to a reading or concert, to find that poem that is the News of the Day, reading it to start off the event."--John Peterson, author.