Solo Duet - by Greg Nelson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Solo Duet unfolds a timeless journey of heartbreak and rebirth. The poems find paths into life's sustaining light, distilling romantic love lost and rediscovered, the challenges and joys of parenthood, and nature's mysterious beauty, into clear-eyed transcendence. Eight poignant poems focused on a father's love for his son shape the heart of the collection. Together, father and son learn, grow and lift each other up, embodying the Renaissance ideal of masculinity as sensitivity coupled with strength. Across a variety of forms and techniques, Solo Duet reaches out to the reader and invites them in, celebrating life with vision and humility, without sugarcoating its trials.

Review Quotes

In this wonderful collection of poems, Greg Nelson leads the reader to discover the world as well as one's self. He captures the outside world of mystical canyons, mountain lookouts, scenic rivers, and places where "A grain of sand in the summer sun glimmers like a star." He also graces the page with brilliant love poems ("We're two waves entangled like one."), his tender relationship with his son, and insightful personal revelations ("raised aloft/a grasshopper's wing/God's emerald eye/looking at me."). These poems are beautifully written and compassionately conveyed through Nelson's stunning language and surprising observations. Join him on this poetic journey which leads us not only to the human heart, but to the spirit as well.

-Bill Meissner

Author of five poetry collections and the novel, The Wonders of the Little World

There are seventeen syllables in a haiku, and fourteen lines in a sonnet. In the face of such limitations, Greg Nelson creates a poetic universe that takes us "by way of the stars" and "the field of our redemption" from the mundane to the profound and finds meaning in "the burning house" we are all running from. Solo Duet beautifully connects language with real human experience. There isn't an extraneous word in the entire collection.

-Richard Berman

Author of the poetry collection The Leaves of Astroturf and CEO of VerbFactory