The Root Endures - by Jeff Burt (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Root Endures begins with a rooster's crowing exultation, ventures through expeditions on foot and secondary expeditions to the quiet of personal discovery, and concludes with poems of the persistence of character that began in childhood. With narratives and lyrics of self-discovery and ecstatic intimacy, of love, loss, and public mourning, The Root Endures invites the reader on expeditions where motion tends toward stillness, and stillness toward a deepening.

Review Quotes

Not since my reading of Brian Doyle's Mink River have I felt such an enchantment. Beginning with "the stone of song . . . in the minor morning" and later, "the throng of starlings full of climb and swoop," Jeff Burt ensorcells us in the magic of his lyrical language, gently inviting us into small and great moments of his own life-young boy to aging adult, song a recurring theme. Some poems are musical and lush ("Rusk County Rag," or "As if Copper Wire Sang the Unleashing of Time"), others stripped down, clean, poignant ("Waxworks," or "Ode on a Yard Light"). In most, he is living close to the land. In "The Calling," he asks the reader, "can I not rise and walk and risk the heart to go out into confusion . . . the raucous roaring delicious imbecility of creation-" This poetry collection is filled with light and beauty, wonder, and a mastery of craft. An utterly gratifying read.

-Rachel Barton, Jacob's Ladder, Editor of Williwaw Journal

Jeff Burt's poems are about journeying; what is gleaned from these journeys-both within and without-are learned, so every poem is perspicacious, is wrought with intertwined meanings, bridging inner and outer worlds, between history and the present, animal and human, the dead and the living. His poems reflect empathy for the enslaved, the poor, the hungry, animals, mothers. So richly textured are they that they lead to crossings, epiphanies, transcendence.

-Irene Toh, Red Wolf Editions