Scars

Peter Meinke is one of the most readable poets.  The surface clarity of his lines and his aptness for metaphor make these poems accessible and mysterious.  They have real subjects – Dessert Storm and acorns, coffee and Tolstoy –  but at the same time give entry to that interior world where all feelings and moralities grow.

“These poems get hold of us by the coat lapels and when they release us we are delighted, shaken, and considerably wiser.”
–Ted Kooser

"Peter Meinke writes, it is clear, beneath a banner of wisdom. His gift in this book is graciously to record the scars inflicted on the body and sould by family life, aging, love and music and joy, the helplessness in this violent world of one who wants ‘nothing but peace’ yet feels ‘my hair come to attention; when the military band marches by. I wish I had written ‘The Parade,’ ‘Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind’ (a funny and sad sestina) and many other poems in this book. They say truth, and they say it with rue, shapeliness, a wonderful band on the keyboard of metaphor."
–Alicia Suskin Ostriker

Peter Meinke holds the Darden Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University. He has been a professor of literature and creative writing at Eckerd College and has served as writer-in-residence at numerous colleges, including University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Hawaii. Meinke has published numerous books of poetry, including Scars, Zinc Fingers, and Liquid Paper. He is also the author of six poetry chapbooks and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Olivet Prize, the Paumanok Award, three Poetry Society of America Awards, the Flannery O’Connor Award, and two NEA Fellowships.