{"id":89,"date":"2013-03-21T17:42:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T17:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/?page_id=89"},"modified":"2019-06-21T14:15:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T14:15:55","slug":"endorsements","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/?page_id=89","title":{"rendered":"Endorsements"},"content":{"rendered":"

What others are saying about The Riddle of Yes<\/em>:
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\"\"In The Riddle of Yes<\/i>, Carolyn Locke\u2019s luminous, meditative poems guide us on the one journey we all take. We experience the deaths of others and sense the steely presence of our own. Like the dying friend in \u201cLament,\u201d we ask \u201cHow long?\u201d; we feel the heartache and confusion of being \u201cbetween.\u201d Time, that errant one, suspends itself; and we wayfarers, enclosed in its otherworldly shadow, walk the path of riddles, dreams, and the sudden shapeshifting of skins\u2014\u201cIt starts when she looks in the mirror \/ and isn\u2019t there.\u201d Then comes a \u201cblessed stillness,\u201d a letting go of certainties: lines dissolve, skin melts, mouths morph into cathedral windows. We become echoes of \u201cevery where\u201d and \u201cevery time.\u201d We empty and fill; we dissolve into nothing and everything; we are rose, seed, wind. We are the AND, the \u201cYES.\u201d In these poems that pay loving attention to both life\u2019s wonders and death\u2019s necessary embrace, the momentary and the forever meld…<\/p>\n

\u2014Margaret Yocom, author of\u00a0ALL <\/b><\/span>KIN<\/b><\/span>D<\/b><\/span>S <\/b><\/span>OF <\/b><\/span>FUR<\/b><\/span>:\u00a0Erasure Poems <\/i>& New Translation of a Tale from the Brothers Grimm<\/i><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Carolyn Locke\u2019s poems possess lyric qualities and move like a film of words. Her lines have the power to coalesce and expand from scene to scene, as when she writes, \u201cso many unanswered questions \/ unwinding through the universe.\u201d In some of her poems, when she comes closest to loss, she eschews punctuation and uses the lower case, including the diminished I,<\/i> as in, \u201ci tell you i believe in death.\u201d Such quiet force can be likened to a nebula where her poems dwell suspended in time, steeped in the primordial seas of riddles to find the Yes<\/i>. In their breadth, Locke\u2019s poems are universal and nuanced, and in their natural music they embrace life wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013Joseph Zaccardi, poet laureate of Marin County, California (2013-2015) and author of A Wolf Stands Alone in Water, The Nine Gradations of Light, Render, and Vents.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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The poems <\/i>in The Riddle of Yes <\/i>by Carolyn Locke <\/i>are not observations, thoughts or reflections, they\u2019re direct experience. The experience is not just that of the poet, but also belongs to the reader who, sitting still with book in hands, forgets that the chair and the lamp are even there because \u201cwhat you will find is a cove\/emptying and filling without end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locke\u2019s poetry has long been bringing together the concrete and the imagined, the physical world and the world of spirit. In <\/i>this collection <\/i>her poems achieve mastery, a seamless shape-shifting of consciousness, another dimension of place <\/i>where the fox, the great maple and the woman who \u201cwakes with a bird in her belly\u201d <\/i>all exist in the same tangible realm with equal impact. This is magnificent work.<\/p>\n

\u2014Barbaria Maria, author of Crossing Time<\/i> and Palace Boulevard<\/i><\/p>\n

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What others are saying about\u00a0The Place We Become<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PlaceWeBecome_cover-1\"The Place We Become<\/em> is indeed all about becoming. In Carolyn Locke\u2019s poems transformation can occur through travel to foreign places\u2014those \u201cbrief migrations into the world of the other\u201d\u2014or by deep attention to the sacredness of the natural world, where an overnight rainfall becomes \u201ca torrential blessing we\u2019ve forgotten to pray for.\u201d Locke\u2019s poems trace the process by which people slip identity and ego, and enter into a larger space. She doesn\u2019t ignore what\u2019s broken, but balances it with images of a greater whole. These are poems that carry much wisdom and beauty. \u2014BETSY SHOLL, Maine Poet Laureate (2006-2011) and author of eight collections of poetry, most recently, <\/i>Otherwise Unseeable.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Carolyn Locke\u2019s The Place We Become<\/em> is a gracefully layered collection of poems. One extended, perfectly integrated breath filled with movement. The rhythm between exactness of location and the gradual, limitless expansion of experience. Through the window, out in the field, close to home, or far away\u2014the poet, the image, the seer and the seen, are one. Amongst the exquisite precision, form, and detail, there\u2019s plenty of room for the reader. This book is an invitation to journey. Be prepared to follow because \u201cSometimes it\u2019s hard to stop yourself\/from letting go\/of whatever anchors you.\u201d \u2014BARBARA MARIA, author of<\/em> Crossing Time and<\/em> Palace Boulevard<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Carolyn Locke\u2019s well-practiced poetic hand transports us in this book to places where the external world\u2014from Maine to Morocco to China and elsewhere\u2014integrates with the internal world\u2014of the self, relatives, friends, colleagues, and others. Every person and event along the way is a corner of space-time all its own, filled with surprise, curiosity, and deeply human tensions carefully observed and meticulously recorded. Her poetry is a prism of the lights and shades of being here. \u2014DANA WILDE, author of<\/em> Nebulae and<\/em> On the Other End of the Driveway<\/p>\n

For a full review of the book:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.centralmaine.com\/2015\/04\/16\/off-radar-indigenous-emotions\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What others are saying about Always this Falling<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_2180\"<\/a>“Carolyn Locke’s poems are crystal clear, and while they forage a kind of territory that has something to do with nature and silence and the human being in all of this, she is also a poet of rare intelligence when it comes to writing about relationships. Her poems make me serene.They are as clear as water and as sturdy as pre-war apartment buildings on Riverside Drive.” \u2014Michael Klein<\/a>, author of 1990, Track Conditions<\/em>, and The End of Being Known<\/em><\/p>\n

“Carolyn’s sensory details can stop me cold in my tracks.” \u2014Nora Mitchell<\/a>, author of Your Skin Is a Country<\/em> and Proofreading the Histories<\/em><\/p>\n

“In Always This Falling<\/em>, Carolyn Locke trains her clear gaze at the earth and the body: muscle and flesh, flower and root. Her questing spirit interrogates everything, unearthing the rich life beneath what we can see and taste. She celebrates our seasons of abundance and loss\u2013\u2013what we risk and what we reap. Above all, these lucid, truthful poems shine with love.” \u2014Joan Larkin<\/a>, author of My Body: New and Selected Poems<\/em>, Cold River<\/em>, A Long Sound<\/em>, and Housework<\/em><\/p>\n

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What others are saying about Not One Thing:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"image1\"<\/a>In a beautifully woven mix of poetry, prose, and photographs, Carolyn Locke shares a \u201cdiary of her heart,\u201d a record of a journey through northern Japan following in the footsteps of the haiku poet Basho and the waka poet Saigyo who traveled before him. As she and her companions walk the paths generations of Japanese poets walked, she realizes that \u201cwandering is like dance\u201d and that what each contributes becomes part of \u201cthe choreography of our shared journey.\u201d Not One Thing<\/em> welcomes readers into the dance with vivid description and haunting poetry and encourages them to contribute their own choreography as they travel along in imagination. \u2014Laurel Rasplica Rodd, Professor of Japanese and author of Nichiren: A Biography<\/em> and Kokinshu: A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern<\/em><\/p>\n

Carolyn Locke went on a magical journey in Japan, and we are privileged to travel with her in this book. Her encounters along the way, with both literary giants on the page and present-day Japanese in person, are recreated here in photographs, diary entries, and poems. Retracing the haiku poet Basho\u2019s 1689 \u201croad to the deep north,\u201d she becomes an observer of and participant in Japan\u2019s venerable religious, artistic, and literary traditions; a meditator on nature and her own inner life; and a reader and a writer of breathtakingly lovely poetry. At the end of the journey, like Carolyn, I am ready to start again at the beginning. \u2014Susan Schmidt, Executive Director of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese<\/p>\n

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What others are saying about The Riddle of Yes: In The Riddle of Yes, Carolyn Locke\u2019s luminous, meditative poems guide us on the one journey we all take. We experience the deaths of others and sense the steely presence of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-89","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions\/328"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolynlockepoet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}