Lies I've Heard or Told

<p class=ql-align-justify><em>Lies I've Heard or Told </em> is the fourteenth collection of poems published by <strong>Michael Poage.</strong> He was born in Virginia but has lived and traveled across the U.S. as well as Europe the Middle East Egypt and Mexico. In 1973 he earned an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Montana studying with Madeline DeFrees and Richard Hugo. In 2017-18 he was the Poet-in-Residence at Dzemal Bijedic University in Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the academic year 2021-22 he taught English literature and usage virtually at Walailak University Thailand. He lives in Wichita Kansas with his wife the scholar professor and activist Dr. Gretchen Eick. </p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>LIES I'VE HEARD OR TOLD</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> is on the outside a small book but on the inside it stretches from Kansas to Scotland to Bosnia and back again. Poage is an acute observer and an unusually cosmopolitan writer-he is the wise man to whom the whole universe is his home city. His poems are nuanced and precise at times funny at times heartbreaking-but true throughout. I suggest buying two copies of this book because you are sure to tell someone else they have to read it and then to press your own copy into their hands. </span></p><p><br></p><p>-<span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> George Franklin</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Michael Poage's fourteenth poetry collection LIES I'VE HEARD OR TOLD is a startling experience. It's a compact piece with specific elements that stand out and touch on a vast range of subjects. Poage spent a year in Bosnia and Herzegovina as Poet-in-Residence at Dzemal Bijedic University in Mostar. Hence his book is partly coloured by the bright colours of the Mediterranean. His poems also have certain dark undertones. This is why one of the most striking pieces in the book is certainly PansionStari Grad where he addresses a brightly lit woman an image that might be described as a lyrical re-enactment of Edward Hopper's </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Morning Sun </em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>(1965). His poems can be expressively and humorously political as well as reflections on family relationships. There is nothing shallow here and especially with the experimental poems he invites the reader's imagination to his various levels of poetic exploration. </span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>-- Mirko Bozic (Mostar 1982) is a poet novelist and literary critic.</span></p><p><br></p>