The Geography of Hope: Poets of Colorado's Western Slope

By David J. Rothman

Book Overview

The West is a big place, and this is a rich book. Humor, love, nature, politics, and magic nestle within its lines, along with sadness, anger, regret, and grief. Yet even in confrontations with the darker side of things these poets are still speaking from a young country, describing lives which call out for words. Like all poets, they are imagining ways to live, which has to mean living in a given place, and therefore with each other. Further, although what brings them together in this anthology is a regional fact, all of the them aspire to put the best possible words in the best possible order, connecting this region to far more than itself. Simply by focusing human attention, putting pen to paper, and then sending their verses out into this place and the wider world, they fulfill a small part of Stegner's vision of the West as a geography of hope.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965715973
• ISBN13: 9780965715973
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Bower House
• Length: 146 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Something here for everyone

This poetry anthology by 12 Colorado writers is a real keeper. The backgrounds of the poets are as diverse as their poetry. Whatever your taste in poetry you are sure to find something that speaks to you. Humor, regret, nature, politicss, love, and a dash of magic are all represented in light and darkness. The diversity of the poetry is amazing considering the writers all reside on the common ground of the Western Slope of Colorado. Wallace Stegner, dean of writers of the West, wrote that "...no place is a place until it has had a poet..." If that is true, the Western Slope of Colorado is truly a place thanks to these poets. This collection, now in it's second edition, is a must have for anyone remotely interested in contemporary poetry of the first rank.