The Gaian Odes

Winner of the 2009 Sinclair Poetry Prize The Gaian Odes
by Howard W. Robertson



“Robertson   really   captures   the pacing   and   might   of geological  landscapes  in  his  poems.   You  could  call  it  a glacier of words.”  ~Van Diep, Jack Straw Productions

“Howard  W.  Robertson  is  an  Oregon  poet  whose  unique style  of  streaming  periodicity,  combined  with  his  wide-ranging intellect, elevates his visionary poetry to a different plane  of  experience  than  the  average  contemporary  poet reaches.”   ~Powell’s Books

 “Howard   W.   Robertson’s   poetry   connects   me   to   the
universe.  His  poems  are  like  the  viewfinder  of  a  camera where  the  focus  moves  from  the  specific  to  the  cosmic  and back.  His  words  evoke  an  organic  undulation  along  the threads  that  join  us  multidimensionally  through  time  and space,  interpersonally  and  ecologically.  Robertson's  poems breathe with the cosmos, exhaling the beauty of daily life.”   ~Tamara Pinkas, Lane Community College 

This is one of the most original and powerful books of poetry you can find: a series of independent, inter-related, flowing expressions of ways of seeing the world and all life in it that makes existence an experience of a fantastic  reality—not a fantasy but a reality that is more like—in Thoreau's words—"an Arabian Nights Entertainment" than we think.  Howard Robertson offers here a mastery of language and vision that's rare in literature at all times but, gratefully, present for us now.
Evening Street Press is proud to publish The Gaian Odes, the first winner of its Sinclair Poetry Prize. Gordon Grigsby, Editor