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Still Life Stories is now available to order on Amazon. Signed copied will be available at Books & Company (Oconomowoc, WI) by the end of August, and copies will be available at all of my upcoming events this fall. Visit the EVENTS page of my author website for more info.
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| Still Life Stories by Cristina M. R. Norcross (Aldrich Press, 2016) Cover art by Jennifer S. J. Peña |
Still Life Stories (Aldrich Press, 2016) is a poetic antidote
of hope and human connection, at a time when the isolation of modern living
leaves us with many questions. Still
Life Stories
explores the themes of family wisdom, spirit guiding us, finding the stillness
within, seeking one’s artistic path and celebrating joy. Each slice of life and snapshot of solitude
offered in this collection allows the reader to pause and consider the inner
life of each narrator. The poems of Still
Life Stories
help bring us closer to our true nature – our true spirit.
Sample Poem from Still Life Stories
This Is the High Land
(for Jim H.)
It is a
brilliant sight –
this letting go.
The free travel
willingly.
The absent lose
their footing,
and no ledge is
wide enough to grip.
The fall is easy
–
waiting for air
to fill the whiteness of soul.
There is no
direction –
only open space.
The mind hears
things
late at night.
What happens
when all is darkness?
James knew what
the sky could tell you.
If you ask him
right now
what happened,
I think he would
say
that he was just
climbing,
trying to get to
the top –
or the bottom –
it matters not
which.
We sat in a
dark, wood carved pub,
the four of us,
thinking of you.
You sat with us
in the empty
chair.
We held you in
our breath –
in our silences.
Back Cover Blurbs
I
live inside layers of color, Cristina Norcross confides in this moving collection, Still
Life Stories. The title provides a double meaning – the speaker
remains alive, as she contemplates the lives of others who have passed in these
arresting still life images. Like the still life paintings of the 17th
century Dutch Masters, Norcross’s poems bring us into a carefully examined
world where death is understood as a new aspect of life. And living fully, is
what Norcross is all about.
~Susan Rich, author of Cloud Pharmacy and The Alchemist's Kitchen
With lush imagery and a tone of celebration, the poems in this collection explore our relationships: with art, with the natural world, with each other. Cristina Norcross has a gift for finding the beauty in all facets of human experience and rendering them with clarity and precision on the page. She reminds us to pay attention. She invites us to feel. Still Life Stories is eminently accessible and full of heart.
~Kim Suhr, author of Maybe I'll Learn: Snapshots of a
Novice Mom and Director of Red Oak Writing
Norcross
writes with the tenderness of one who knows that beauty is often born of
darkness, and there are joys accessible only through sorrow. In Still
Life Stories she offers readers small, polished jewels reclaimed from loved
ones who have walked on: a horse remembering its rider; a climbing friend who
fell; dances with a ghostly grandfather. Though gone, her loved ones still
live. Still Life Stories also
touches readers with the writer’s gentle counsel to herself: surrender; break
open; feel everything; begin again. Still Life Stories is a small book
of treasures.
~Leslee Goodman, Publisher/editor of The MOON Magazine
• I will be having a double BOOK LAUNCH PARTY at Books & Company on Saturday, October 15, 2016 (6:30-8:30pm) to celebrate the publication of both Still Life Stories and Amnesia and Awakenings (Local Gems Press, 2016). There will be an open mic for local poets, after the featured reading, and I will be signing books at the event. Hope you can join us!
Peace and poetry,
Cristina
Founding Editor, Blue Heron Review
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