In the Open Wind (PDF)

What do we know? Read at will. Out of many winds, each poem has some clues and hints to a story. And if your questions narrow down to one: from where does In The Open Wind come? I tell you it is unlikely that this question will ever be fully resolved.What do we know? Robert Graves once pointed out "the paradox of poetry's obstinate continuance" in our times and offered an explanation: perhaps it is "the feeling that poetry, since it defies scientific analysis, must be rooted in some sort of magic, and that magic is disreputable." Graves says also that poems are based "on magic principles, the rudiments of which formed a close religious secret for centuries but which were at last garbled, discredited, and forgotten. Now it is only by rare accidents of spiritual regression that poets make their lines magically potent in the ancient sense. Otherwise, the contemporary practice of poem-writing recalls the medieval alchemist's fantastic and foredoomed experiments in transmuting base metal into gold; except that the alchemist did at least recognize pure gold when he saw and handled it. The truth is that only gold ore can be turned into gold; only poetry into poems."In The Open Wind contains poems in both English and Portuguese. For an author bio and photo, reviews, and a reading sample, visit bosonbooks.com.