Trying Not to Be a Nature Poet
you should buy this book
W. Joe Hoppe is a friend and sometimes mentor. He’s a good poet with the rare blend of honed academia combined with a solid blue collar life and roots, and he has a new chapbook out, Trying Not to Be a Nature Poet, and it is out now from Obsolete Press.
The book is handmade with a beautiful screen printed cover and Obsolete Press posted a video of the book making process on their social media account. It’s pretty cool, and if I can post it here I will. If you’re a DIY book lover, this is about as good as garage made DIY books get. a link to the Facebook reel here
Trying Not to Be a Nature Poet, by W. Joe Hoppe has 13 poems and kicks off with the poem that launched the book’s title and is a beautiful poem honoring nature and community and ends with the lines “a motorcycle screams through the pavement/like a ripsaw,” a line that got my attention.
The poems in the book reminisce youth and love, recall the bird sounds, including that of a sandhill crane, a bird that calls like no other. Have you heard them?
There’s spring poems of hope and winter poems of determination and tender poems of life on a family Xmas tree farm. If you’ve ever loved and hoped, or bought a live Xmas tree, then this book is for you.
Some of my favorites of the book are the two blackberry picking ones in the book’s middle. If you’ve ever picked blackberries, then this book is for you. “If you’re going to pick blackberries/you’ve got to come correct” as the poem “Picking Blackberries” says in its beginning.
One poem about visiting a Michigan lake says “…the rocks are no bigger than/the kind you’d find in rich folks’ yards” a line that made me laugh out loud. The work of a true master. Using common everyday minutia around us to paint pictures with words. Plus, rich people do have those giant rocks, don’t they?
The book ends with the poem “Between Xmas and New Year’s” and that poem ends “Time is a superstition” a fitting end to a wonderfully crafted and well written chapbook. And when I say well written, this is poetry that doesn’t contain one extra single unnecessary word. Poetry that is whittled to its sharpest point. If you like poetry, then this book is for you.
I was honored to get to write a blurb for the book.
W. Joe’s Trying Not To Be A Nature Poet is as playful as it is serious, honest, yet tongue in cheek. It’s the wry, witty observations of a veteran poet reaching beyond potential, humming along in harmony with the world around him as he sharpens his knife, and whittles enviable phrases with impeccable precision, crafting poetry that damn near sings, all on its own.
-Dan Denton, Author of the Dead and the Desperate
Get your copy of the book here.
Love,
Dan