Settling for Beauty, Poems by J.D. Smith
The
spare and delicate lyrics of J.D. Smith's Settling for Beauty do anything
but settle: they ache for the world's beauty, search it out, and, in their
quiet triumphs, both discern and display that beauty in its infinite multitude.
Sample
Poems by J.D. Smith
“John Smith’s poems have the strength of small, dense objects
that are pleasing to the touch, like smooth stones with unique bumps and
hollows. Even the briefest of them develop that inner momentum that propels
the reader beyond the last line, through a door the poem has opened. Even,
or maybe especially, the poems of sadness have largeness of spirit, and
depth of inner vision. This is a strong and engaging book.”—Henry
Taylor, 1986 Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry
“Though his subjects range from street preachers to old sweaters
to collapsing barns, J.D. Smith is ultimately a poet of loss and longing.
The poems in this volume examine with subtle, exhilarating skill the frustrations
of romantic love, the beauties and degradation of nature, and the indescribable
distances of God. These are brilliant poems, finely crafted and deceptively
complex. I have long been an admirer of J.D. Smith’s work, and the
poems in Settling for Beauty are his best yet.”—Kevin Prufer
J.D. Smith has published
one previous collection of poems, The Hypothetical Landscape, and
the edited anthology Northern Music: Poems About and Inspired by Glenn
Gould. His poetry, fiction, essays and reviews appear in journals
in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Born in Aurora, Illinois,
he currently lives and works as an editor and writer in Washington, DC.
ISBN 1933456051, 80 pages, $17.00