James Crews

I read this book as a song of praise for all the small things we pass unnoticed, for the people and times and blessings we often miss. It’s also a joyful shout-out to nature, to farmers and fields. Finally, it’s a love letter to the poet’s husband.

Images like this will stay with me:

“. . . needing only / the rush of water / over strawberries / I picked myself . . .”

“ . . . and I’ll rest on the banks of the pond, / my mind at last like the head / of the snapping turtle breaking show more the surface / for air, and sending wave after wave / back to shore where my only question now / will be whether or not to leap in / and add my ripples to his.”

“. . . the window I left open // an inch or so all day / so I could listen // to winter rain erasing / months of piled-up snow . . .”

This is the first I’ve read of James Crews’s poems, but I’m already looking forward to his next book. show less

Nikita Gill writes in the forward of The Wonder of Small Things that “Every poem in this collection is filled with such awe and reminds us of the duty of the poet: to collect that awe and write it down.”

James Crews has collected poetry that will remind readers to wonder at this world, to be alive to it, and allow its transforming power to change us.

Each section concludes with a Reflective Pause in which Crews considers a poem’s message, followed by Invitation for Writing and Reflection show more with a writing prompt inspired by the poem.

Themes of the Reflective Pauses include Let Wonder Guide You, A Time for Everything, Choosing Peace, The Place of Attention, The Awe of Aliveness, Nothing for Granted, The Gift of Stillness, Winks of Calm, and Worlds of Wonder.

The poems are not only presented thematically in groups, but are so perfectly curated as to flow one to the next. The effect was to draw me into the next poem. All the poems in a section work together to produce a deeper emotional connection.

There is a wonderful mix of poets, the well-known next to the emerging. You will find Wendell Berry’s beloved The Peace of Wild Things and Jo Harjo’s Redbird Love, Jane Kenyon’s In Several Colors and Rita Dove’s Horse and Tree. I discovered many poets I was unfamiliar with and plan to read more by them.

I found myself so moved at times, I was inspired to jot down my own lines.

I loved the poems about the commonplace, like “My Mother’s Colander” by Dorianne Laux describing the many ways the old tin colander was put to use, or Penny Harter’s “Just Grapefruit,” describing the preparation of a grapefruit to eat. We are reminded to take enjoyment in every part of life.

I highlighted so many lines.

What is the way to pay tribute to glory?
The aspen knows: applaud with every breeze.
Web by Marilyn McCabe

One of my favorite poets, Joseph Fasano, is included with his haunting poem “Letter” with its ending “change me, change me change me. All I want is to be more of what I am.”

And if it’s true that we are alone,
we are alone together,
the way blades of grass
are along, but exist as a field.
from Belonging by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer

Today
when the bigness of sky asks whoever

is standing beneath it are you ready
the gray trees drowsing and temporarily losing

the last of their burnt sienna leaves will say yes
and you will say yes and I will say yes too.
from Poem of Thanksgiving by Nathan Spoon

I have been reading books on some very somber subjects. These poems lifted my spirits at the end of the day.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. show less

So, to be clear, I'm in the middle of a reading slump and thinking of quitting blogging, but I never turn down the chance to read, review, and promote any anthology by James Crews.

(And it was possibly the thing to pull me out of the slump.)

I've read and adored The Path to Kindness and How to Love the World, and The Wonder of Small Things has become my favorite of the three. This collection focusing more on poems about nature is the first collection that has forced me to read and love nature show more poetry; I had just assumed in the past that it wasn't for me.

All three of James Crew's anthologies contain reflection exercises, and while those are interesting, my main aim has never been those when the man puts together a phenomenal anthology. Between William Sieghart and James Crews, I never run out of poems when I need them.

Thank you NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the chance to read and review this book! show less

In these days of anxiety and uncertainty, this book soothes and reassures. After an insightful introduction by Ted Kooser, James Crews brings together poets who encourage connection, harmony, compassion.

It didn’t hurt that the work is by some of my favorite people, including Barbara Crooker, Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Dorianne Laux (whose “Mother’s Day” left such an impression on me), W.S. Merwin (how I want to emulate his gift), and Connie Wanek (if you haven’t read her Consider show more the Lilies: Mrs. God Poems, do so!).

I also discovered new poets (who are not new, but new to me):
Mary Elder Jacobsen. You can’t go wrong with a turtle poem! I, too, am “mesmerized by a moving shell.”
Alison Luterman. Her “I Confess” made me smile after a stressful day.
Danusha Laméris. “Small Kindnesses” was perhaps my favorite of the collection.

So many moments of joy and simple pleasures fill these pages. I’ll be re-reading it often. show less