Lake, River, Mountain

by Mark B Hamilton

Overview

In Lake, River, Mountain, Mark B. Hamilton follows the Lewis and Clark route on a physical journey paddling a kayak westward on the Missouri River, across the Great Plains. Immersed in a natural world, the environment is ever-present. The weather, the water, the habitats and fauna, and the lands of Native Americans all merge to conjoin or confront, as they in turn influence beliefs, emotions, and hopes for the future. Hamilton crafts poems both intimate and sweeping, with time and history merging into a confluence of friendship, family, and finding one's place in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781960329189
Publisher:	Cornerstone Press
Publication date:	01/15/2024
Pages:	78
Sales rank:	1,262,454
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.19(d)

About the Author

Mark B. Hamilton is the author of OYO: The Beautiful River (2020) and Confronting the Basilisk (1993). His poetry has been widely published, and he is perhaps the only living person to have traced the entire Lewis and Clark route on their approximate time-table, traveling as they did by paddle and pack mule.

Editorial Reviews

"The last poem in Mark B. Hamilton's Lake, River, Mountain, a lovely near-haiku, reads: 'A mountain lily / shines underfoot in the snow. / Life is this close.' Throughout the book, he holds life as close as the shining flower, especially in the rich series of poems about his journey by kayak retracing the Lewis and Clark Trail and observing their rate of travel. This is a wise, tough, and joyful collection. 'How wonderful the Earth! / How sweet the scent of this red slate beach.'"

-Ann Fisher-Wirth, author of Paradise Is Jagged, co-editor of The Ecopoetry Anthology

"With poetic grace, Mark B. Hamilton brings life's past portages to the present, never to be forgotten. Lake, River, Mountain expresses the ongoing grandeur of rediscovering relationships with past landscapes; only Mark has experienced these episodes and retells these crossings with honesty and humility as he brings them into being again."

-Rich Clow, author of Spotted Tail: Warrior and Statesman, Professor Emeritus, University of Montana

"If Lewis & Clark had a poet with them, it would have been Mark Hamilton. Visually captive, thought provoking and inspiring. Hamilton captures the feel of a long journey on the water with Lake, River, Mountain."

-Norm Miller, founder of Missouri River Paddlers

"Mark Hamilton travels in a world made of metaphor. On the water paddling his kayak on an epic journey or on land, camping, he sees what others might only look at, finds the unexpected relationships. Inanimate things have awareness: '...the river feels everything passing/ and knows of its approach.' Camping, 'all night my tent blinks with lightning/ flaps and sags under the immense gray sky.' All his senses are fully awake, and ours are awakening as we journey with him 'upstream on this difficult river/ learning to accept, learning to avoid'-a metaphor for life itself."

-Grace Butcher, editor (retired) and founder of The Listening Eye, Professor Emerita, Kent State University-Geauga

From the Publisher