And The Rough Places, by Tom Gillaspy

And The Rough Places, by Tom Gillaspy

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And The Rough Places, by Tom Gillaspy

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Tension, struggle, conflict consume every dimension of existence. They fill the blank spaces between nature and human, tradition and modernity, improper and proper, real and surreal with the ghosts of their actions. These tense, blank spaces are the realm of these poems, pitting the timeless qualities of mountains, wilderness lakes, tradition, and surreal visions against the harsh realities of poverty, global competition, expedient development, bigotry, and high def. In this poetic space, time is a spiral, not an arrow. Change occurs, but with a gracefulness that modern societies find cumbersome. Faster is not always better. The title of this collection, “And The Rough Places”, is from Isaiah 40:4, echoing the “voice in the wilderness” that tells us struggle will change everything and what is now unclear will become clear. The implications of change are not well understood and may have far reaching and unintended, nonlinear consequences. The farmer in the high Andean plateau tends his terrace with a pre-Columbian plow, pulled by a bull whose ancestors arrived with the Conquistadores, talks to his relatives in the US on his cell phone, living in at least two millennia simultaneously. Or the young shepherd in northern Kenya who guards his goats with bow and arrow against hyena and leopards, while keeping in touch with his village via cell phone. Better communications, better health, better diet, better education, and prosperity are all laudable goals, but they come with costs and implications that we don’t yet fully understand. The young couple, one in Beijing, the other in Houston, repulsed by the ugliness, greed, and pollution around them, have a virtual love affair in Second Life, a world of their creation where all is beautiful and peaceful. Environment and culture change is everywhere and growing. I welcome modern life with its convenience but lament the bleeding of trees and scars on the faces of mountains. I despair the loss of languages and ancient customs that help heal the soul. In my career as a demographer, making forecasts of populations, I have necessarily lived simultaneously in the past, present and future. The image in my brain of what the future will look like, always so clear in the past, grows murky with increasing uncertainty. In work, I lived in the 21st Century while dreaming of days I spent hiking the wilderness with Walt Whitman in the 19th. I hear the buzz of the chain saw while working on my computer, but in my mind wolf and owl speak to me. Poems and images in this collection reflect the internal and external conflicts of these tensions and the ghosts they spawn.

And The Rough Places, by Tom Gillaspy

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6221290 in Books
• Published on: 2015-03-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.00" h x .23" w x 6.00" l, .32 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 100 pages

And The Rough Places, by Tom Gillaspy

About the Author Tom Gillaspy, (hiker, wilderness trekker, traveler to unusual places and retired demographer) also wrote "Fly Like an Eagle", a collection of poems in 2011, and "Piko, The Dog With No Tail", a children's book published in 2014. Tom also speaks to many groups on economic and demographic trends and forecasts for the future. Tom holds a PhD. in economics from Pennsylvania State University and a BS from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Wide-ranging. Nature, social commentary, whimsy: fun and thoughtful. By Jim Bennett As always, do not let my star count override your judgement of content. More on the stars, counting, and my rating challenges later. Let’s get to the book.Gillaspy has provided us with a number of black-and-white images as backdrops to his fifty-seven poems. The pictures add to the work, but the poems stand on their own.If you are looking for fresh and extended metaphor, the very first poem, Hiking the Western Spine, will fulfill that wish: “That I hike alpine fingers, /Resting in a weathered palm, /Where rivers are lifelines /Obscured by the folded fist, high /Above the realm of puma and cougar.”For social commentary made immediate, turn to Love in the High Sierras. For personal regret, then moving on, turn to Unnamed Waterfall.A brilliantly simple comment on modern social ‘progress’ can be found in Portrait of a Young Man. This is a favourite in this collection.Sympathy for an old dog can be found in The Hunt, another favourite.There is a hint of sex in Fresh Chaplas, where the poem “turns a corner’ thus: “Beautiful Patrona May I clean /Your magic oven, /Its door so wide /With my fresh and firm /Alfalfa?” Again in My Winter Blanket, there is a pleasant surprise ending.The Darkness Has Returned captures modern life as a dystopia similar to the age of superstition and predestination. This longer poem cannot be decently appreciated from a mere quote; get the book and read this one for yourself.I should mention that the reader will visit the USA, South America, and Africa in this volume. For example, A Flock of Pale Missionaries Land in Kenya, where the misfit ignorant outsiders are also the helpers of orphans. Salt of the Earth comes to mind here.All that said, how do I come up with a star count? My personal guidelines, when doing an ‘official’ KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. I try hard to be consistent. Gillaspy is up against my other favourite poets, and stands pretty tall in their company. Five stars it is, and strongly recommended.Kindle Book Review Team member.(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. very nice Tom! By Beth Kockelman I especially liked your many poems on the Kenyan culture and your experiences while traveling there. Great to see things from a poets point of view!

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Gillaspy has a good sense of how to convey the feel of a ... By tw Gillaspy has a good sense of how to convey the feel of a place or situation in few words. He has apparently traveled widely and writes about very different places well. The book is a very enjoyable read.

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And The Rough Places, by Tom Gillaspy