Francis d’Assisi 2008 by Gary Metras

Description

Francis d’Assisi 2008

by Gary Metras

$14, paper

Gary Metras is the first poet laureate of the City of Easthampton, Massachusetts appointed in April 2018. His new book, River Voice II, is due late this spring. The poems in this book were all inspired by his passion for fly fishing and fly tying, with such poems as A Rainbow Trout in Rain, The Water Battle, Geometry of Trout, and Home Waters, which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by The Aurorean Magazine. He is the author of the poetry books The Night Watches (Adastra Press, 1981), Destiny’s Calendar (Samisdat Press, 1985), Until There Is Nothing Left (Ridgeway Press, 2003), The Moon in the Pool (Presa Press 2015), White Storm (Presa Press 2018) and Captive in the Here (Cervena Barva Press, 2018) along with eleven chapbooks, most recently, Two Bloods: Fly Fishing Poems (winner of the Split Oak Press Chapbook Award, 2010), Francis d’Assisi 2008 (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Greatest Hits 1980-2006 (Pudding House, 2007). His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in such journals as America, American Angler, The American Voice, Another Chicago Magazine, The Bellingham Review, The Boston Review of Books, California Quarterly, Connecticut Poetry Review, English Journal, Hurricane Review, Istanbul Literary Review, New England Watershed, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry, Poetry East, Poetry Salzburg Review, Sanctuary (Journal of the Mass. Audubon Society), Wind, Wild Earth, Yankee, and Tears in the Fence (UK), along with the anthologies Visiting Frost: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Robert Frost (Iowa), Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge (Grayson), Birth: A Literary Companion (Iowa), and Atomic Ghosts: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age (Coffee House). He is a past recipient of the Massachusetts Fellowship in Poetry. His Francis d’Assisi 2008 was selected as Recommended: Massachusetts Books of the Year 2009. He is the editor, publisher, and letterpress printer of Adastra Press. He has worked as a store clerk, tobacco picker, short order cook, hod carrier, air traffic controller (U.S. Air Force), bookstore manager, high school English teacher, and college writing instructor. He holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Goddard College. He is on the board of directors of the Pioneer Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited and fly fishes the streams and rivers of western Massachusetts as often as possible.