With images wrought in highly perceptive verse, David J. Bauman’s poems speak eloquently of what we love, and what prevails over the artificial and transient. His sharp perceptions are attentive to the pastoralism around him—the crow’s “blue-black wings, / unhindered by the weight / of morning,” a river at dawn, its “mist hovering like a frozen ghost.” Such poignant natural details, personal and reflective, “slowly / raise the relics to light,” recalling the land- and riverscapes of James Wright. The poems of Moons, Roads, and Rivers embrace and take solace in what blesses our lives, generously offering a luminous, enduring work.
–Jeffrey Alfier, editor of Blue Horse Press and San Pedro River Review
David J. Bauman threads dynamic energy throughout Moons, Roads and Rivers, which leads the reader to palpable angst and longing. With a command of both the contemplative and reflective, he creates a definite gravitational pull, movement between floating and sinking as you travel the circuitous curves of his journey toward an unending horizon of memory.
–Dawn Leas, author of I Know When to Keep Quiet and Take Something When You Go
David J. Bauman‘s debut chapbook, Moon, Roads, and Rivers, is a celebration of everyday elements that we often take for granted, including the moon, that “burning globe of blood/above our street,” long winter drives in the morning, and crows that beat their “blue-black wings.” Bauman’s lines and rhythms are precise and fine-tuned, be it in poems about kayaking along the Susquehanna River or memories about his father. The book is rich in extended metaphor and clear in its imagery, especially when the poems juxtapose negative human elements, such as trash burning or cold TV rays, against the beauty of nature. At the heart of the book, the poet celebrates humanity, despite our flaws, and acknowledges that we are at our best when we are attuned and respectful to the greater world around us.
–Brian Fanelli, author of Waiting for the Dead to Speak (NYQ Books)
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