From its beginning - with a body 'ecstatic in the swirling / rhythm of itself', Riverfall is a collection of poetry filled with the real and imagined geography within and around us.
The first section, 'A Body of Water', spans the Western hemisphere, from the trickle of a mountain stream to a series of eloquent letters by Charles Darwin to his sister, circa 1832. 'On the Orchard's Edge' explores the brambly places at the edges of fields and mangrove swamps and startling memories. The book closes with 'The Last Harvest', a selection of beautiful, mythical, and often haunting reflections on place, and the places we can no longer attain.
Altogether, Riverfall possesses you like the archaeologist in 'The Bone', where you'll find yourself 'flowering / down while my blood runs to the river'.
"The poems of Riverfall succeed because they inventively express Buntin's most compelling visions, convictions and doubts. The poems matter to the reader because they matter so strongly to the poet."
Peter Kline
Simmons B. Buntin is the founding editor of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments, an award winning international journal at terrain.org. His own American terrain has varied from the rolling hardwood hills of Maryland to the flagstone trails of the Colorado Front Range, the scrub oak hammocks of Central Florida to the thorny scarps of the Sonoran desert, where he lives today in Tucson, Arizona. His passions include sustainable urban design, hiking, photography, and his wife and two daughters. His poetry has appeared in numerous North American journals and anthologies, and he is a recipient of the Colorado Artists Fellowship for Poetry.
The first section, 'A Body of Water', spans the Western hemisphere, from the trickle of a mountain stream to a series of eloquent letters by Charles Darwin to his sister, circa 1832. 'On the Orchard's Edge' explores the brambly places at the edges of fields and mangrove swamps and startling memories. The book closes with 'The Last Harvest', a selection of beautiful, mythical, and often haunting reflections on place, and the places we can no longer attain.
Altogether, Riverfall possesses you like the archaeologist in 'The Bone', where you'll find yourself 'flowering / down while my blood runs to the river'.
"The poems of Riverfall succeed because they inventively express Buntin's most compelling visions, convictions and doubts. The poems matter to the reader because they matter so strongly to the poet."
Peter Kline
Simmons B. Buntin is the founding editor of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments, an award winning international journal at terrain.org. His own American terrain has varied from the rolling hardwood hills of Maryland to the flagstone trails of the Colorado Front Range, the scrub oak hammocks of Central Florida to the thorny scarps of the Sonoran desert, where he lives today in Tucson, Arizona. His passions include sustainable urban design, hiking, photography, and his wife and two daughters. His poetry has appeared in numerous North American journals and anthologies, and he is a recipient of the Colorado Artists Fellowship for Poetry.