Poet Paul Willis sees life’s everyday, usually-passed-over-without-a-second-thought events, and he finds the sacred. It might be that scouting jamboree where you sit around a campfire singing “On Top of Old Smokey.” Or a football playing helping a tackled opponent to stand. Or young boys digging a hole in an empty lot because, well, they need to dig a hole. Or trimming back a tree grown too close to a building. Or hitchhiking a ride back to college, and only years later realizing that you spent a short time with a man who barely survived the Battle of the Bulge.
The sacred can surprise you, and it usually does. And it often surprises you years later, because sometimes you see the sacred only years after you actually experienced it.
Somewhere to Follow is Willis’s new poetry collection. It’s filled with poems that tell stories of youth, of young adulthood, of family, of professional life, and of walking and hiking in Yosemite National Park. He writes with awareness of his own limitations and a wry sense of humor.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
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