Great Pond

In Great Pond, Meek traces the quiet arc of a life - its turning seasons, its fleeting doubts, its beauty. He navigates memory, change, and the evolving self, capturing the terrain of "creating a sense of uncertainty / about where exactly you're headed / and what it is that you really believe." There are no regrets here - only reflection - as nature and memory blur into one meditative whole. This is a quietly powerful book of poems that will linger and stay with you.

-Gloria Mindock, publisher of Červen?Barva Press, author of Grief Touched the Sky

Ed Meek's poetry gets under the skin of nature and his intimate interaction with it. In addition, he writes of the joys and perils of booze, the tragedy behind Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, and the way we talk about death ... Meek's poetry is economical, straight, no chaser, and deeply layered. There is sizzle and steak in his work, and it leaves a culminative impact.

-Doug Holder, former co-president of the New England Poetry Club, publisher of Ibbetson Street Magazine, author of The Collected Works of Doug Holder

These taut, direct poems cover a wide range of subjects: walking the dog, going to the beach, watching birds: the osprey, "with wings as wide as I am tall." The landscape, though sometimes serene, can menace, with ticks, pedestrian hazards, and climate change. Meek draws the reader in with a disarming, conversational tone: "we were all together alone on the highway / waiting to be rescued." Besides addressing family and the past, he meditates with wisdom and compassion on the world at large: the homeless pushing "walking-closet" shopping carts, the blind girl whose "body is a dark room / with the door closed;" a mother and her child pried apart "like oysters" by border patrol. From the beautiful title poem about horses being led into the water to the somber "Sonnet for the Dead" ("Though they are gone, we seek their approval still"), these powerful, resonant poems will reward serious reading and contemplation.

-Helena Minton, author of Paris Paint Box