The new life

About this book

Review "SMALL THINGS SCREAMING is a collection of poems that needs to be read. Deeply personal without being preachy or patronizing, Shugrue's poems offer up what might be called a tonic dose, a reality check concerning life as we live it... Gracefully clear and accessible, his language resists the prosaic and plainspoken by virtue rifflike phrasing and symbolic resonance." -- Doug Marx Product Description Poetry. After the day's amazement, / the insults and stupidities, / it's all right to sing this tired song, / to gulp the cold wine down. // You are there now, I imagine, / in a place barely stapled down / with fences, in a landscape of sky. / All we know is what escapes us (Saskatchewan). The lyrical confessionals of ICEWATER advance through understatement, freezing (rather than burning) their way into the mind. Jim Shugrue lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is coeditor, with Lisa Steinman, of HUBBUB magazine. Saddlestitched chapbook.