It may not be possible to understand post-industrial New England without reading Richard Jordan. “Rainbows” in this book are both promises and trout. Hornpout, a kind of catfish, caught at Willard Pond, are full of tannery chemicals and toxic. You need a loving father to tell you that, and many of these poems are about the way good men parent their sons. There’s natural beauty here, but mortality, the end of a fishing trip with a dying friend, the Vietnam War—these things also hover. This is a fine collection from a wise poet, a soothing, necessary read.
Christine Potter, author of Unforgetting, poetry editor of Eclectica
These are narrative poems, observations of changes made in stillness, as if waiting for a tug on the line, maybe from the “brookie” that the speaker of one poem releases and then imagines in those waters for the rest of his childhood, “never telling/anyone what I knew was there.” In these poems, the past is always “upstream a stretch,” and it will coalesce as a ghost, a cloud, a drawing, a used car, or even because of a pair of knitted gloves.
Jeanne Griggs, author of Postcard Poems and After Kenyon
Spotting the Rise is a gorgeous collection, brimming with images of the natural beauty found along the banks of the author’s beloved Squannacook River. Cast your eyes across this chapbook, and you will net both small beauties and large lessons about the losses that punctuate the human pursuit of hope and joy. In one of the many stunning poems here, the poet declares, “people are immune to wonderful things.” Read this wondrous batch of poems, and any such immunity you have will be compelled to disappear.
Jo Angela Edwins, author of A Dangerous Heaven
Richard Jordan’s poems appear or are forthcoming in Southern Poetry Review, Rattle, Terrain, Cider Press Review, Connecticut River Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, DMQ Review, Tar River Poetry, South Florida Poetry Journal and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, The Squannacook at Dawn, won first place in the 2023 Poetry Box Chapbook Contest. He serves as an associate editor for Thimble Literary Magazine.
It may not be possible to understand post-industrial New England without reading Richard Jordan. “Rainbows” in this book are both promises and trout. Hornpout, a kind of catfish, caught at Willard Pond, are full of tannery chemicals and toxic. You need a loving father to tell you that, and many of these poems are about the way good men parent their sons. There’s natural beauty here, but mortality, the end of a fishing trip with a dying friend, the Vietnam War—these things also hover. This is a fine collection from a wise poet, a soothing, necessary read.
Christine Potter, author of Unforgetting, poetry editor of Eclectica
These are narrative poems, observations of changes made in stillness, as if waiting for a tug on the line, maybe from the “brookie” that the speaker of one poem releases and then imagines in those waters for the rest of his childhood, “never telling/anyone what I knew was there.” In these poems, the past is always “upstream a stretch,” and it will coalesce as a ghost, a cloud, a drawing, a used car, or even because of a pair of knitted gloves.
Jeanne Griggs, author of Postcard Poems and After Kenyon
Spotting the Rise is a gorgeous collection, brimming with images of the natural beauty found along the banks of the author’s beloved Squannacook River. Cast your eyes across this chapbook, and you will net both small beauties and large lessons about the losses that punctuate the human pursuit of hope and joy. In one of the many stunning poems here, the poet declares, “people are immune to wonderful things.” Read this wondrous batch of poems, and any such immunity you have will be compelled to disappear.
Jo Angela Edwins, author of A Dangerous Heaven
Richard Jordan’s poems appear or are forthcoming in Southern Poetry Review, Rattle, Terrain, Cider Press Review, Connecticut River Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, DMQ Review, Tar River Poetry, South Florida Poetry Journal and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, The Squannacook at Dawn, won first place in the 2023 Poetry Box Chapbook Contest. He serves as an associate editor for Thimble Literary Magazine.
Title: Spotting the Rise
Author: Richard Jordan
Publisher: Rockwood Press
Released: 2025 - November
Format: chapbook, acid-free paper, silk cover
Pages: 36
Price: $10
ISBN: 978-1-59498-187-6
