Sentiment and Sediment: 21 Poems

by Brian D'Ambrosio

Compared to all else, poetry is the most legitimate and expressive form of written and spoken communication. It’s a window into the mind and nucleus of vision and love. It’s a view into reality, hope, frustration, observation, joy, and failure. It means everything and it is a nonentity. Poetry is the world of words pressed from dreams, memory, fantasy, free association, and whatever forbidden emotions might lie buried but eager for release beneath the brittle veneer of ordinary waking life. A poet may never relax his vigilance. She or he must be constantly alert and objectively critical of her or his own work.

But our work is unaffected. It’s ours. We own it. We divulge it. We preserve it. We share and supply. We love it. It’s an honor to share a few words of universal feelings. Poetry is particularly sensitive to the way the elements of language affect both the look of our own individual land and the life living in our own countryside. It is an honor to amass and store and save before relinquishing and releasing.

83 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2017

About the author

Brian D'Ambrosio lives and works in, as well as writes from, Missoula, Montana. In his most recent profiles, D'Ambrosio interviewed Iowa folk music legend Greg Brown, blues artist Mia Borders, boxing legend Earnie Shavers, boxer Doug DeWitt, Washington Capitals assistant coach Tim Hunter, and famed Montana leather artist Howard Knight.

D'Ambrosio's past stints have included work as an instructor, media consultant, newspaper editor, and marketing and communications coordinator.

His favorite journalistic topics or subjects: history, theatre, architecture, biography, boxing, NHL tough guys, photography, forgotten inventors, and obscure American poets and authors.

Brian D'Ambrosio has written more than 10 books and is in the process of completing a biography of boxer "Indian" Marvin Camel and a book called 'Warriors on the Ice," detailing the whereabouts of many former NHL tough guys. He contributes regularly to multiple publications on a vast variety of subjects.

Reviews

[Lafayette Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to live in Louisiana and I met the author on a trip he was taking through LaFayette and the Kenny Hill sculpture park. There is a poem about Cancer Corridor, in Louisiana, and the author nails the sense of the place. The book is about a sense of place, no matter how fleeing. I like the photos to accompany the photos, something different, I also like the style, like the stretching of sentences and the italics, like the Terry Fox line. It's different. Maybe like EE Cummings, but modern. There is a journalist's eye and a poet's heart.

[KansasExplorer Explorer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw and heard the author read at Ad Astra, in Salina, Kansas, this winter. We held an open poetry reading on the weeknights. I like the poems and the idea of found text and the way the poems are accompanied with photos. There a lot of memorable lines and I like the pacing and imagery. You could read through it all on a nice afternoon. Thank you, Brian!

[Poetesskansas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poems all feel like songs, with a melodic flow. Sometimes the journalist comes out and is too literal, but overall I liked it a lot.