{"product_id":"9780996020695","title":"Cloudshade: Poems of the High Plains","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn every season, life on America’s high plains is at once harsh and beautiful, liberating and isolated, welcoming and unforgiving. The poems of Cloudshade take us through those seasons, swinging wide a glassless window to life in the West--to antelope flowing seamless over dirt roads, boom and bust ghost towns, deep, glacial lakes ringed with glowing aspen trees, ice fishing by the Northern Lights, and as in “High Plains Solstice,” live music on summer nights that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ecarves hot petals \u003cp\u003ethrough our bodies\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ein its ritual of tides\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eand light;\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003elicks us open \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003efrom the inside\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003euntil we are night-blooming jasmine\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eseduced by the moon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCloudshade is a book for everyone, from poetry lovers to those who don’t usually read poems. If you’ve ever waited through five or six months of winter for the first signs of spring, stood outside to feel the first, long-awaited summer rains, caught the wood-smoke and cottonwood scent of fall, or stood on a frozen lake, listening to winter rumbling and heaving through the ice, these poems will carry you back to what is elemental and haunting about life on the high plains, as in “On the Ice,” where\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWe wait, silent, hearing with our feet\u003cp\u003ethe seething of ultramarine blood,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ethe twitching of bones,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003erumbles of omens\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eand restless spirits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ice stretches and heaves,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ecracking like gunshot, \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eand beneath that, glints and gleamings\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eof sound, like whales\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ecalling across the darkness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the poetic tradition of James Wright and B.H. Fairchild, these poems are rooted in the mercies of daily life, illuminating the intersections between our own internal landscapes and those that surround us. Howe offers a fleeting portrait of that intersection in the poem, “En Route to My Father’s Funeral”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAt a pale crossroads,\u003cp\u003ein an open shop two floors up,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ea welder works into the night.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis arc is lonesome in the cool air,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003egobbets of fire\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003elike unformed angels\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003efalling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether you live on the high plains or it lives in your memory, the poems of Cloudshade, like the first summer rain, bring the sounds, scents, and the vividness of life back to us, whole. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sastrugi Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49878992945392,"sku":"9780996020695","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780996020695","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}