Affirmation - by Steve Straight (Paperback)

About the Book

"The poetry in Affirmation recognizes the difficulties, even tragedies, of the world, and yet remains optimistic. In these poems, the speaker interacts with people from all walks of life and with nonhuman creatures also, always offering a generous, humane perspective. There is a nice mixture of humor and serious thinking in this poetry collection"--

Book Synopsis

The poems in Affirmation find the remarkable in the seemingly ordinary, and, without glossing over the difficulties and hardships of living, articulate a hopeful vision of the world. In the poem "Telling the Bees," the speaker is "exhausted by the smoke of doubt and fear," and longs "to be stung again / by wonder, by joy." The poems in Steve Straight's book do just this for the reader.

Review Quotes

Whenever you feel a loss of hope for the world-for this Earth and all created beings-take up this book of poems, Affirmation, by Steve Straight. It's not self-help, it's not feel-good-but it just may restore your love of the ordinary moment, your family, your neighborhood, birds and critters that lose their way into your yard and help you into a deeper way of caring for this Earth...These are restorative, playful, and wise poems by one of Connecticut's best poets.

Margaret Gibson, Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut

The poems of Steve Straight offer us a vision of integrity, a sense of solidarity with the world. That includes the world beneath the poet's feet, whether a one-eared chipmunk in his garden or the bones of a mastodon dug up on the ground of a great estate. Not only are chipmunks and mastodons visible in these poems; so, too, are the working people often rendered invisible, a solitary school janitor or the poet himself, almost flattened directing traffic as a factory security guard. Straight is a poet who articulates a deep appreciation for life.

Martín Espada, author of Floaters, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry