A Small Pile of Feathers: The Collected Poems of Gerry Spence

Gerry Spence that enduring iconic figure in his fringed suede jacket has been a successful charismatic and passionate champion of justice in Americas legal system for decades. Now he offers us the chance to take a walk through the nine decades of his extraordinary life in these collected poems.Those familiar with Gerry Spences fiery imprecations against corruption in law and politics will recognize another side to his voice as a writer in this collection of poems A Small Pile of Feathers; a spiritual loving and sometimes humorous side one devoted to family and to preserving the wild places he writes of as though they were inscribed on his own bones in his own blood: My poems are as silent as firs as towering and as still. But in tender grasses along clear creeks in the sound of meandering water over patient rocks in the sharp sweet smell of the early morning you will hear my songs.A true highlight of this collection is Section two filled with poems honoring the deep and abiding love of Gerry Spence and his wife Imaging as well as his children family and lifelong friends. Entirely and authentically Spences many of these poems capture the kind of raising of the ordinary to the sublime so often found in Pablo Nerudas sonnets such as in Mr. Spences poem Once the Legs of Wrens a love poem for his wife Imaging: You came whisking like six new brooms into my life You the child of the electric winds of love And by the bread and milk of passionYou dipped me into a sweet fathomed seaAnd captured me. Of all the rivers that run through this book perhaps the greatest one is the deep quiet sense of grace a current strong enough to remind us of what we value in our own lives the people and things that help us find and keep our paths. As Spence says: I sing out of a heart worn smooth.