Excerpt - Disinheritance by John Sibley Williams

We're happy to have John Sibley Williams and his new book of poetry, DISINHERITANCE, with us today! Please leave a comment or question to let him know you stopped by!

DISINHERITANCE
Author: John Sibley Williams
Publisher: Apprentice House Press
Pages: 98
Genre: Poetry

A lyrical, philosophical, and tender exploration of the various voices of grief, including those of the broken, the healing, the son-become-father, and the dead, Disinheritance acknowledges loss while celebrating the uncertainty of a world in constant revision. From the concrete consequences of each human gesture to soulful interrogations into “this amalgam of real / and fabled light,” these poems inhabit an unsteady betweenness, where ghosts can be more real than the flesh and blood of one’s own hands.

For More Information:

• Disinheritance is available at Amazon.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

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Book Excerpt: 

Truce 

A panic of finches rises and tonight

the late salmon moon is filled  

with rivers and old shadows. Reflected,

iridescing, an amalgam of real 

and fabled light. I rub grains of wood and cloud

between my hands and stretch from the grass 

into a grandmotherly story of angels,

their necessary demons, and how little 

it takes for the one to climb or descend into

the other. This is what she told me before 

she climbed or descended. The distance from us was

the same. This is how she explained where I’d gone 

and am going. 

My hands don’t remember much anymore

of where the birds have flown. There are felled trees 

in the sky. The moon’s face drifts across the river.

And I miss the hard geometries of coffins.

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About the Author:

John Sibley Williams is the editor of two Northwest poetry anthologies and the author of nine collections, including Controlled Hallucinations (2013) and Disinheritance (2016). A five-time Pushcart nominee and winner of the Philip Booth Award, American Literary Review Poetry Contest, Nancy D. Hargrove Editors' Prize, and Vallum Award for Poetry, John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and works as a literary agent. Previous publishing credits include: The Midwest Quarterly, december, Third Coast, Baltimore Review, Nimrod International Journal, Hotel Amerika, Rio Grande Review, Inkwell, Cider Press Review, Bryant Literary Review, RHINO, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

For More Information:

• Visit John Sibley Williams’ website.
• Connect with John on Facebook.
• Find out more about John at Goodreads.