Poets and Poems: Nicholas Samaras’ “American Psalm World Psalm”

Poets have long been interested in the Biblical psalms, and for good reasons. The psalms are written in poetic form, and read like poetry even in translation. They cover the range of human emotions, from happiness and gratitude all the way to depression. The psalms also seem to be voiced by real people, people

with questions, fears, demands, courage and cowardice. And the psalm are also set in a historical context, many of them dealing with the place of the psalmist in society and the place of the psalmist before God.

Two decades have passed since poet Nicholas Samaras published Hands of the Saddlemaker (reviewed here at Tweetspeak in 2011). He’s continued to publish poems and articles in literary publications, edited books, and contributed to anthologies. Now he has brought together 150 poems in a volume entitled American Psalm World Psalm.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph by Alex Grichenko via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.