Heaven and Nature, A Poetry Reading by Thomas R. Smith

Join us in person at the River Falls Public Library or virtual on the virtual on the RFPL Facebook or YouTube page for a poetry reading by local Author, Thomas R. Smith’s latest book. The evening will wrap up with an open mic session. Attendees can sign up for five minute time slots the night of the event.

Heaven and Nature poems Thomas R. Smith Heaven and Nature brings together the natural world, the transcendent world of human eros, and the contradictory beauty of our mortality. In the midst of an array of narratives and reflections, the poet is keen to highlight glimmers of a paradisal element in our experience. Part one, “Wild Belonging,” takes us through a seasonal cycle—birds, insects, and plants observed near the Kinnickinnic River in western Wisconsin. Part two, “Stay,” celebrates the transitory nature of the lives we mourn, both public figures (Jack Kerouac and Rachel Carson are two) and personal friends held in memory. Inevitably, these poems also memorialize vivid shared moments of personal history. In part three, “Heart Jukebox,” the poet returns to the world of immediate experience: the “magnificent here and now.” Artists and musicians are celebrated, inspirations as varied as a rural sculptor, a young bluegrass band, a foreign film star, and the Beatles. A handful of poems of mature love conclude the section. Amid the ebb and flow of seasons and relationships, with its losses, dissonnances, and disappointments, the book sustains a steady undercurrent of joy. Readers struggling to identify elements of our world that are worth preserving may find encouragement in the pages of this book. About the Author Thomas R. Smith is author of ten previous books of poems, including The Dark Indigo Current, The Foot of the Rainbow, Windy Day at Kabekona: New and Selected Prose Poems, and Medicine Year . He has also edited several books, most recently The Garden Entrusted to Me: Essays on Poetry and the Writing Life by Robert Bly. His prose work, Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival, came out from Red Dragonfly Press in 2022. He teaches poetry at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and posts poems and essays on his website at www.thomasrsmithpoet.com. ISBN: 978-1-947237-75-9 / 100 pages / $17.00  Nodin Press : Minneapolis 