In the Kingdom - by Jonathan Blake (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A book where poems and peace can be found. A tribute to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont - rolling hills of the pastures on the horizon, the wildlife, the stillness needed for dreaming, have long been the wellspring for Jonathan Blake's writing.

Review Quotes

A meditation on the beauty of love's stillness amid an ever-chaotic world, Blake's poems dare us to sit in solitude; to embrace the power of loneliness; and to hold reverence for nature's sweet sadness and muted glory. It's as if he sees into our hearts - our desires and longings - and welcomes us to find a quiet intimacy in the expansiveness of our natural world, despite the vulnerable reckoning it may awaken within each of us. A masterful collection, In the Kingdom is a remarkable and gorgeous dedication to navigating the human soul in any season.

Lyrical, memorable, and lovely, Jonathan Blake's In the Kingdom provides the antidote we need now for the curated identities urged on us by social media. In place of glitz and glam, he offers wisdom and restraint. In place of the shallow celebrity promised by the 140-character tweet, he offers patient attentiveness to profound reality. He celebrates beauty. He dares to imagine his own impermanence. There are no distracting city lights here, but rather a reminder of the restorative power of the natural world and the rhythm of the seasons. The algorithms we are now tempted to live by have been engineered to make us forget the depth of our hunger. These are poems that feed our souls.

These poems are quiet moments with deep roots. Blake is a secular monk of sorts - a married Han Shan wandering the rich pond-scape and hills of the Northeast Kingdom. When his students ask "What is Poetry?" Blake responds: "How do I tell them/ About the quiet in the heart/.../ for what grows fragrant/ In the dark? Truth grows out from the pond, from dreams, from a father's visiting ghost." In the Kingdom is a collection you'll want to read more than once.