Perhaps Allan Peterson's most accessible collection

Other Than They Seem by Allan Peterson


Perhaps Allan Peterson's most accessible collection, these short poems brushstroke homely images into thoughtful eloquence. Musing on aging and the body, Peterson thinks "of making English out of birdsong" as natural images interplay with daily tasks and the poet tries out his meanings. Mortality lives beside the innocence of the Other as a deer eats his ivy and returns his stare with no guilt. Three horses struck by lightning lie dead, "their eyes open/focused behind us on a long thought."

Peterson's "long thoughts" here merit daily rereading. Living with this book is like having a thoughtful, observant friend who always finds just the right thing to say as he looks out his window at our world. .

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