Description
A poetry of musically rhythmic and mystical folklore. James Cole’s Crow, come home comprises a collection of voices and forms that takes the reader to the edges of narrative and legend.
In the style of medieval mythology and its lands of mystical creatures, James Cole has used his accomplished language skills to give us three unlikely soothsayers. He has created new legends as remarkable poetry. He has given us a poetic hat trick. “He moves quickly who is master on the island of knives,” is genius. Look at his poem, “The Progress of ‘Matter'” and try to tell me he is not brilliant. I dare you! Kudos, James.
– Sara Robinson, author of Sometimes the Little Town, Stones for Words, Two Little Girls in a Wading Pool, and Needville
James Cole’s Crow, Come Home draws on folklore to create a narrative about three animal characters–a crow, a snake, a wolf–who interact in surprising, and often hilarious ways. The book is a medley of different voices and different forms, some conventional, some unconventional. What comes across repeatedly is the musicality of the language. These poems are meant to be read, but also to be chanted or sung.
– Henry Hart, poet laureate of Virginia and author of The Ghost Ship, The Rooster Mask, and Background Radiation
James Cole is a doctoral student in neuroscience… no, a poetry critique leader… no, wait, an impromptu jokester… oh, no, I meant a live-wire spoken word artist, but a blogger for the written word of community poets, also a gatherer of exceptional words on the page into his very own chapbook. As you read his verse, you will discover James Cole has these skills and other subtleties: his knife-edged observations of ordinary events become rhythmic, comic truths for everyone; his college laundry turns into a grinning, universal lesson. Enjoy the whirlwind of words by the extraordinary James Cole.
– Patsy Asuncion, Ed.S., author of Cut on the Bias and open mic host at The Bridge PAI
