Dig This

Congratulations to Shawn Aveningo Sanders and Robert R. Sanders, the publishers of

the beautiful new collection The Poeming Pigeon: Poems from the Garden. With over a hundred pages of poetry (and three stunning photographs by Robert), the pieces in this volume dig deep. Beneath the bright blossom of a tulip or the hard shell of a ladybug is a world where spiders weave, worms crawl and humans search for meaning in the impermanence of their world.

While the collection celebrates the food and color (and humor!) found in gardens, it also invites the reader into an Eden of ideas, as rich as fertile soil. One poem, "Chamomile for Molokans" by Katy Brown, explores the theme of looking for something in the garden - an herb, a blossom - that can comfort a sorrowing heart. In "Unnamed Ghost," Cindy Rinne writes of a grave for a stillborn baby at Manzanar, the infamous California internment camp. And "While Deadheading Lavender, I Think of My Late Father," a piece by Amy Miller, offers the hope of new life stirring in a plant that survived the winter.

Also in the collection, you'll find lawns and bees, japonicas and maple seeds, as well as my contribution, "And on Earth, the Garden of the Universe." This piece sounds different from my usual writing voice. One poet at the book launch commented that the tone was almost Biblical. I'm not sure how that happened. Maybe it's because the first line came to me while I was in the shower - a place, like a garden, where I can do some of my best, and deepest, thinking.

To order your copy of the Poetry Box's Poems from the Garden, visit http://www.thepoetrybox.com/_DetailPagesBookstore/TPP-GardenOrderPage.html.