“There is an unnoticed Buddha, near a lake in Texas, writing verse that will lift our burdens. Who knew?”
~ Michelle Hartman, editor of Red River Review and author of The Lost Journal of my Second Trip to Purgatory
Garcia Lorca is Somewhere in Produce
“In Garcia Lorca, Brady Peterson crafts a surreal world where ‘God’s appointed’ is a ‘woman selling tortillas in a bakery,’ kisses taste like spring itself, and the entire world turns into a ripe watermelon ready for slicing. With images appealing to the senses, the poet takes us into a fantastic but believable world. A deeper relevance lies beneath the beauty and strangeness in this world where so many ‘cling to things/already lost,’ a relevance which reminds us of our own surreal world. In a way, Brady’s poetry is like a sip of hot, black coffee waking us from our slumber.”
~ Katherine Hoerth, editor of Amarillo Bay, author of Goddess Wears Cowboy Boots
“Brady suggests much to many. His insights are great, his education evident, his thoughts sly, and he makes us wiser as we see ourselves with his eyes. His poems are like old friends when we first discover them. Not much has ever been better.”
~ Cleatus Rattan, Poet Laureate of Texas 2003-'04, author of The Border
“From a room in central Texas, Brady Peterson resolves the mystery of time: Why does history fail us? Do we remember what we remember? His poems are well-crafted eternities where history is ever present, the title itself linking us to Ginsberg, Whitman, and García Lorca. London remains suspended between wars, Orwell wanders Paris, and Vietnam continues to break America. Ghosts stay alive. To paraphrase Brodsky on Auden, Brady has lived long enough to master the vocabulary of his life. Poetry is how he lives. No other poet is writing like this. An excellent book.”
~ Mark Cannon, poet and day worker
“These poems by Brady Peterson are a gift. Written mostly about the many shapes and the slippery nature of love, they urge us to recognize it, to hold onto it a bit more than we might, to keep faith with the ordinary that links us to one another and to the earth. These poems are an example of how the power of poetry can make us feel connected, though poems often fall short. There is no falling short here.”
~ Myra McLarey, Water from the Well