Reward - Softcover

Skeen, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1635342627 ISBN 13: 9781635342628

Publisher: Finishing Line Press, 2017

Synopsis

 

Serving as an American Red Cross disaster services and labor co-op volunteer for almost twenty years put poet Tim Skeen in contact with a unique cast of characters—from the instructors to his fellow volunteers to those people in crisis he assisted. The poems in Reward capture moments from that service and also address the more personal side of loss, grief and recovery as the poet writes of his father and brother and his own path from youth to middle age.

About this title

Review:

"Skeen is a careful observer of minutiae. His poems are filled with precise diction, crafted into numerous sonnets, free verse and prose poems. The images in these poems will remain with us for a long time, reminding us that only a small effort from each one of us is needed to make this world a better place."

--Biljana Obradovic

"These are the poems of a man who walks and looks with a keen eye at the world around him. In a time when people are so self-absorbed and staring obliviously into screens, the poems of Tim Skeen are all about looking out! Look at the old monk, look at Betty, look at Captain Thomas, look at the youthful parents on a Harley, look at Larry the Grand Dragon, look at the porn stars of the eighties, look at the twins in the womb holding hands, look out. The poems of Tim Skeen remind us with great compassion of our common humanity and inspire us to appreciate the ordinary as well as the extraordinary, the common as well as the unique. Highly crafted and readily accessible, Reward is another fine collection of poems by this prize-winning California poet."

--Seido Ray Ronci

"Reward extols the importance of purpose, the inevitability of impermanence, and unflinchingly addresses human dilemma with honesty and ecstatic detail. Tim Skeen's lens is always true and, with necessary candor, he harnesses the authentic voice of father, son, teacher, Red Cross volunteer, and voyeur. I always return to his poems for their grounded solidity and empathy. This effort reinforces his role as one of America's great poetic pugilists. Reward sings the forever song of facing it--whatever our it may be."

--Ronald Dzerigian

About the Author:

Tim Skeen, the 2013 winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize for his book Risk, teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Fresno State. His first book, Kentucky Swami, won the 2001 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. A graduate of the PhD program in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he lives in Fresno with his wife, Pam, and daughter, Iris. He has been a Disaster Assessment Specialist for the American Red Cross for nearly twenty years.

About this edition

• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1635342627
• ISBN 13: 9781635342628
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 78