Sea Level Rising Poems

Sea Level Rising, John Philip Drury’s fourth collection, revels in water—flowing through rivers, splashing on quays and docked vessels, the wake of speeding boats, the elusive tang of sea salt in the heart of the prairie, even the water of baptism that rebirths the believer. The uplifting lure of water, as with a pair of honeymooners in Venice, may inspire a love “eager to divorce/ anything impeding its energy.” Our state of being might mirror water’s when “everything’s in flux, repeated spasms/ of wake and wave, bright sun, reflecting pool,/ surges made up of intricate detail.” The waves of music, like those of water, are also prominent in the musings of this collection, where that which “rises and returns/ approaches music, a blessing/ beyond sound.” These are masterfully crafted poems of uncommon inspiration, and they whelm with a celebration and longing for that which ebbs or flows inside us. PRAISE FOR SEA LEVEL RISING: Sea Level Rising is about a lot of things, all in some way the same mystery—why we love tidal waters, why we feel a kinship with the pulse and ebb of time and emptiness, why we feel most alive when we stand at the fractal edges of perception, why the singing of a good poem evokes all those correspondences we can’t help loving. John Philip Drury’s new poems will please many and please often as he celebrates, and with mastery, the inexhaustible waters before and within each of us. —Dave Smith, author of Hawks on Wires: Poems, 2005-2010 With candor and a close eye, Drury introduces us to a world of love and literature, nostalgia and new experiences—a world where water pervades everything: a constant and comforting reminder that what we depend on is, like us, also always in flux. Drury is deft at numerous forms, with a delicate touch. You can become so swept up in a poem you may not recognize it as a sonnet until you reach its resounding couplet; but, the beauty of the form—the force of its rhymes and the rapture of their song—has resonated since the opening lines and in all the energy that follows. That’s the wonder of this collection: the “film of beauty, tides that keep on rising,” as Drury writes. Sea Level Rising is an amazing achievement. It should not be missed. —Erica Dawson, author of The Small Blades Hurt John Philip Drury is a Marylander; it makes all the difference. The ever-changing sea defines these poems; Drury explores impermanence—destiny, the future, love, fame, desire—anchored by a rock-solid formal mastery. Land and sea interpenetrate here—loom up, fall away—transmuting one into the other, a way of seeing. His favorite city is Venice, a perfect metaphor for a sensibility too large to be only one thing or its opposite. The masks and play of that ancient meeting place of land, sky and sea divert us from the serious business of its survival—and that might be a good way to describe Drury’s art. In impermanence, through our art, we survive. —James Cummins, author of Still Some Cake

Poetry. SEA LEVEL RISING, John Philip Drury's fourth collection, revels in water flowing through rivers, splashing on quays and docked vessels, the wake of speeding boats, the elusive tang of sea salt in the heart of the prairie, even the water of baptism that rebirths the believer. The uplifting lure of water, as with a pair of honeymooners in Venice, may inspire a love "eager to divorce / anything impeding its energy." Our state of being might mirror water's when "everything's in flux, repeated spasms / of wake and wave, bright sun, reflecting pool, / surges made up of intricate detail." The waves of music, like those of water, are also prominent in the musings of this collection, where that which "rises and returns / approaches music, a blessing / beyond sound." These are masterfully crafted poems of uncommon inspiration, and they whelm with a celebration and longing for that which ebbs or flows inside us. "SEA LEVEL RISING is about a lot of things, all in some way the same mystery why we love tidal waters, why we feel a kinship with the pulse and ebb of time and emptiness, why we feel most alive when we stand at the fractal edges of perception, why the singing of a good poem evokes all those correspondences we can't help loving. John Philip Drury's new poems will please many and please often as he celebrates, and with mastery, the inexhaustible waters before and within each of us." Dave Smith "With candor and a close eye, Drury introduces us to a world of love and literature, nostalgia and new experiences a world where water pervades everything: a constant and comforting reminder that what we depend on is, like us, also always in flux. Drury is deft at numerous forms, with a delicate touch. You can become so swept up in a poem you may not recognize it as a sonnet until you reach its resounding couplet; but, the beauty of the form the force of its rhymes and the rapture of their song has resonated since the opening lines and in all the energy that follows. That's the wonder of this collection: the 'film of beauty, tides that keep on rising, ' as Drury writes. SEA LEVEL RISING is an amazing achievement. It should not be missed." Erica Dawson "John Philip Drury is a Marylander; it makes all the difference. The ever-changing sea defines these poems; Drury explores impermanence destiny, the future, love, fame, desire anchored by a rock-solid formal mastery. Land and sea interpenetrate here loom up, fall away transmuting one into the other, a way of seeing. His favorite city is Venice, a perfect metaphor for a sensibility too large to be only one thing or its opposite. The masks and play of that ancient meeting place of land, sky and sea divert us from the serious business of its survival and that might be a good way to describe Drury's art. In impermanence, through our art, we survive." James Cummins"

Table of Contents: After Charming Ambergis The Artist And His Model The Bohemian Wedding Ceremony Coyotes Daughters (1) Daughters (2) Daughters (3) Debussy Drawing Water Elegy For Neil For My Mother On Her Birthday, Swimming Fossils Getting Out Of Tijuana The Good Morning Home And Other Future Travel Plans In Rovaniemi, Finland, Twenty-fifth Birthday Jackson County Census: 1880 Jackson County Census: 1900 Letters: 1 Letters: 2 Letters: 3 Letters: 4 Like Love In The Coal Mine Married, To Ivan News From The Fire Strip Newspaper Pictures Out Of Poland: December 1981 Nullipara Phrases For Problems Riding The Last Row Of The Articulated Bus Scotch Coulee Squid The Sunbather The Sunday Drunk Takeover There Was A Temporary Accident To Her Friend The Physicist Travelers Valise Venetain Mosaic 1 Venetain Mosaic 2 Venetain Mosaic 3 Venetain Mosaic 4 Vera Wanting, The Mortuary Widow Aunts Woman With Distaff The Women On The Bridge The Wound-up Girl Ice Skater Your First Questions

"I know of no other poet who has addressed climate change as powerfully and persistently as James Grabill. In Sea-Level Nerve: Book One, the urgency of our greatest challenge is perhaps more audible. In Book Two, Grabill shatters every conceivable divide we have become so comfortable with. By allowing language to fly far and deep and wide, he fuses science with imagination with logic with intuition with human with other. Threads of spatial, temporal, genetic, and tonal interrelatedness ramify through this book like mycorrhizae through soil, and thus Grabill gives voice to all on our planet in a chorus of systems thinking and a revelation of the absolute necessity of biologic diversity. You need only to press an ear to this shell for it to make "the sound you can't hear as much as sense within your chest." -Derek Sheffield, author of Through the Second Skin

"A stunning atlas of the present and future."—Rebecca Solnit, author of several books including Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York "An impassioned plea to save what remains of these remarkable island communities."—Booklist, starred review One of the Best Science Books of 2023, New Scientist This immersive portal to islands around the world highlights the impacts of sea level rise and shimmers with hopeful solutions to combat it. Atlases are being redrawn as islands are disappearing. What does an island see when the sea rises? Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean weaves together essays, maps, art, and poetry to show us—and make us see—island nations in a warming world. Low-lying islands are least responsible for global warming, but they are suffering the brunt of it. This transportive atlas reorients our vantage point to place islands at the center of the story, highlighting Indigenous and Black voices and the work of communities taking action for local and global climate justice. At once serious and playful, well-researched and lavishly designed, Sea Change is a stunning exploration of the climate and our world's coastlines. Full of immersive storytelling, scientific expertise, and rallying cries from island populations that shout with hope—"We are not drowning! We are fighting!"—this atlas will galvanize readers in the fight against climate change and the choices we all face.

This is the seminannual Able Muse Review (Print Edition) - Summer 2016 issue, Number 21. This issue continues the tradition of masterfully crafted poetry, fiction, essays, art & photography, and book reviews that have become synonymous with the Able Muse-online and in print. After more than a decade of online publishing excellence, Able Muse print edition maintains the superlative standard of the work presented all these years in the online edition, and, the Able Muse Anthology (Able Muse Press, 2010). ". . . [ ABLE MUSE ] fills an important gap in understanding what is really happening in early twenty-first century American poetry." - Dana Gioia. CONTENTS: EDITORIAL - Alexander Pepple. FEATURED ARTIST - Andy Biggs. FEATURED POET - Amanda Jernigan; (Interviewed by Ange Mlinko). FICTION - Andrew Valentine, Terri Brown-Davidson, John Christopher Nelson, Timothy Reilly. ESSAYS - Ron McFarland, N.S. Thompson, Barbara Haas. BOOK REVIEWS - Amit Majmudar, John Ellis. POETRY - Midge Goldberg, Jean L. Kreiling, Sankha Ghosh, Timothy Murphy, Pedro Poitevin, Joseph Hutchison, Pierre de Ronsard, Heinrich Heine, Catharine Savage Brosman, Rachel Hadas, Stephen Palos, Bruce Bennett, Doris Watts, Jeanne Emmons.

'Hiller offers extraordinary resilience and moments of immense, liberatory tenderness. [...] This is a harrowing book, yes, but ultimately, with its invitation to “billow forth the wrecks we hold”, with its emphasis on resistance and joy, it is a staggeringly beautiful piece of life-affirming work.' Stephanie Sy-Quia, The Poetry Review