Tears for Things by Bruce Parker
Bruce Parker was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Albu- querque. He is the author of the chapbook Ramadan in Summer, (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He holds a BA in History from the University of Maryland, Far East Division, Okinawa, Japan; and an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico. He has taught English as a Second Language, worked as a technical editor, and was a translator for the Department of De- fense. His work appears in Triggerfish Critical Review, The Field Guide, The Inflection- ist Review, Wild Roof, Crosswinds, New American Writing and elsewhere. Married to fellow poet Diane Corson, he lives in Portland, Oregon, and is an Associate Editor at Boulevard.
Early praise for Tears for Things:
Bruce Parker’s Tears for Things is the unflinching work of a mature poet in a stare-down with mortality. In these tightly wrought poems, Parker walks “the long path uphill every step,” but he keeps a keen eye for “things worthy of praise” along the way. “Be open, be open,” he implores, even to “the nothing that includes everything.”
--Wayne Lee, author of Buddha's Cat and The Underside of Light
With brevity and lean syntax, Bruce Parker invites the reader to travel avenues of rich silence. Within them, in “waiting for the image / to rise from the bath,” we find “things worthy of praise, of tears,” and the comfort or discomfort of having "your every breath / the only time there is.” In a voice by turns resigned and defiant, the poems of Tears for Things wander and focus, as the poet assesses the transformations of life as lived, and as experience and memory. A very satisfying read.
-- John L. Miller, author of Olympic