Alan AtKisson is best known for his writing on global environment, economic, and sustainability challenges, including the bestseller Believing Cassandra (1999, 2010) and The Sustainability Transformation (2010). This is his first book-length collection of poems, spanning three decades of writing. Some of AtKisson's poetry has appeared in small literary magazines or independently published chapbooks, but most has not been available to a broader reading public before now.
As a poet, AtKisson covers an exceptionally wide range of subject matter that incorporates contemporary global issues, deeply personal details, and the often unexpected intersections between the two. Also known as a singer and songwriter, AtKisson brings a sense of music to his precise and often rhythmic language. The poetic forms he uses are highly varied, stretching from strict formality to wildly referential free verse.
This collection also includes AtKisson's two long poems. "Chronosphere," written for a friend who was dying of cancer, combines free verse, rhyme, haiku and other poetic forms in 61 clock-like verses. "Screed," composed over a year-long period of intensive travels (2002-2003), is a post-modern rant that evokes Allan Ginsberg, T.S. Elliot, Thomas Transtromer, and many other writers. Its main theme is the folly of human civilization in an era of climate change, and the ever-present possibility to "begin again."
Alan AtKisson's Collected Poems 1982-2009 was published in 2012, by Broken Bone Press, in collaboration with CreateSpace.
