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Restland by Nicholas Barnes

Restland by Nicholas Barnes

Original price was: $17.99.Current price is: $15.99.

 

Chock full of delicious imagery “creamsicle clownfish with apricot / and snow white stripes” and strong sensory details “a librarian that smelled like pennies,” Nicholas Barnes has managed to fuse coming-of-age poems in a fresh way with a thoughtful mature voice resonant of Holden-Caulfield-meets-Seamus-Heaney-meets-Huckleberry-Finn-meets-Ocean-Vuong. Here, youth contemplates evil and death and a strong sense of place looms with a voice keenly aware of violence and mortality. Hopeful and touching, Barnes’ skill is in the raw unfurling, one by one, petals of images “brick by brick” are unearthed. Here “little wooden ticonderoga pencils” present the fragility of young life. Here darkness and hope lie side-by-side, where a “young boy waits to see / what he will plant / in seasons to come.” It is a book that asks if our pasts can be shed, and what can emerge from that shedding, if we can ever escape the “slow motion hamster wheel” and find our feet, and transition to fully emerge as ourselves. Dare I say Barnes is an emerging writer to watch, whose unique lyricism is mesmerizing and packs a punch.

–Puneet Dutt, Poetry Editor, The Fiddlehead, and author of The Better Monsters

 

 

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Restland

by Nicholas Barnes

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This title will be released on June 20, 2025

The title for Nicholas Barnes’ poetry debut comes from a cluster of eponymously named memorial parks found across America. The poems in this chapbook-length collection comprise a bone depository in verse; a cemetery of song. Restland is a journey through youth, lost innocence, and self-discovery. Enter through the wrought-iron gates and see the mossy tombs, decaying bouquets, and looming thunderclouds. Dive into this phantom dreamland, a spiritual oasis where fluid memory and hazy time reign. Where you can bury your demons six feet under earth, grass, worms, and stone. Where you can wake from the darkness and face tomorrow with love in your heart and silver wings on your back.

Nicholas (Cole) Barnes is a poet living in Portland, Oregon. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Southern Oregon University in 2019. His work has appeared in over seventy American and international publications including Barzakh, Cola Literary Review, Eclectica Magazine, Juked, and trampset. Restland is his debut chapbook.

 

 

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