War / torn - by Peter Vanderberg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Combining poems and drawings, war / torn is a meditation on the nature of war and our relationship to its devastation. Directly inspired by the tragic news and images from the war in Ukraine, this chapbook seeks to understand the trauma and loss that is faced by mothers, fathers, children, and grandmothers in a distant place that becomes personal through our shared human experience. This book argues that the role of the poet during times of war is to build empathy for all who suffer through the ratio between prayer & poetry.

Review Quotes

Peter Vanderberg's war / torn poems transverse geographic spaces, histories, media, languages, and generations. The voices of Vanderberg's verses pose critical questions about warfare, family, and the sacred, as they render a brilliant "ratio of prayer & poetry" where "seeing / is perceiving is witness / & that writing is preserving & prayer." This is an exciting collection, where Vanderberg also offers his own stirring illustrations, which complement the lyrical qualities of his poetic voyages into ethics and power.

-Steven Alvarez, Author of Fence Modern Poets Prize winning The Codex Mojaodicus