From the Back Cover "These poems are suffused  with a profound sense of the land and its people that Sibyl James encounters. The book is a road trip around this country and beyond. James is an inveterate traveler and a keen observer of all she sees. She looks below the surface to find the story behind the obvious, and reports it in beautiful verse. From the small towns of the Midwest where she sees the "hunched backs of corn and soybean farmers" and hears the "sassy tongues" of seventeen-year-olds and on to Central America to bear witness to the horrors of war. And everywhere is the difficulty and necessity of love. This wonderful book is a journey into humanity and justice, and spirit." ―Judith Roche, winner of the American Book Award and author of All Fire All Water and Wisdom of the Body "In her poems, Sibyl James writes "the only history worth repeating"―that of our isolated selves seeking love while knowing shared longing is "as close to harmony" as we'll get. This unvarnished truth plays out in James' poems set in failing small towns in the West, or Midwestern farm towns she remembers from childhood. At once humorous and wistful, the poems in The Grand Piano Range perfectly express our unanswered longings. We are "like separate stones/ that pitch down cliffs together, and have no word/ for avalanche." ―Emily Warn, author of Shadow Architect "There are good reasons why the poems in this volume have appeared in over thirty literary magazines and anthologies: they are brilliant, and richly endowed with language and imagery. Sibyl James is an extraordinarily gifted poet."―James Bertolino, author of Ravenous Bliss: New and Selected Love Poems, his 12th volume of poems Read more About the Author Sibyl James is the author of ten books—poetry, fiction, and travel memoirs—including In China with Harpo and Karl and The Adventures of Stout Mama. She has taught at colleges in the US, China, Mexico, and, as Fulbright Professor, Tunisia and Cote d'Ivoire. As writer in residence, she has worked for the Washington State Arts Commission, the Seattle Arts Commission, and the Seattle School District. She has received awards for her writing from Artist Trust and the Seattle, King County, and Washington State arts commissions. Read more
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A book to be savored
Are you like me? Do you take many of your road trips safely ensconced in your easy chair? Then this is the book for you! In her lyrical manner, Sibyl James will take you from Twisp, Washington (where my mother used to live) through the Midwest. You will survive a backcountry collision and haul a piano over Alaskan mountains. You will smile, and you will know sadness before she brings you safely home to Twisp.James paints beauty with words, brings history into your presence. This is a book to be savored as one would an old and rare wine, a perfectly aged steak, an original Micaelangelo.
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