Description: When Weirton Steel was powerful and poured-Columns of smoke and fumes into the air-North of Martins Ferry in the valley-And orange water tumbled from its sluices-Into an umber river far below-I was a boy. --Sonnet I, lines 1-6. The one hundred sonnets in this volume carry us beyond the author's boyhood into a voyage of adult concerns but also playfulness, love of art, and intimations of Paradise. They affirm in many ways a nobility Wallace Stevens thought was hard to find in contemporary poetry.
Brief description: Jeffrey Jay Niehaus is a poet and Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He is the author of God at Sinai (1995) and Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology (2008), as well as commentaries and articles. His works as a poet include Preludes: An Autobiography in Verse (2013) and God the Poet: Exploring the Origin and Nature of Poetry (2014).
Review Quotes: ""When my schedule is too busy, Jeff Niehaus's sonnets invite me to slow down and 'travel' at the same time, to remember while looking forward. They are a sort of holy tribute to the stuff of living--music, art, memories, nature--a balm of, and for, creativity's work, calling me to pay attention to what really matters."" --Jo Kadlecek, author of Woman Overboard