Description
Temporary Roses Dipped in Liquid Gold
by James A. Freeman
$14, paper
A graduate of Shasta College, Reed College and Humboldt State University, James A. Freeman is a transplanted Shasta County, Californian, who, for thirty years plus, has taught Language & Literature at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA, living in nearby Langhorne, PA. A veteran creative writer, James is the author of nineteen books, including the new book of stories “Irish Wake: In Loving Memory of Us All” (Publish America, 2012), which is a student scholarship fundraiser, the faction novel “Ishi’s Journey”(Naturegraph, 1992), the novel “Never the Same River Twice” (with Phyllis Agins–Charles McFadden Co.,1996), and the novel “Liars’ Tales of True Love” (Publish America, 2007). Frank Wilson, then the Books’ Editor of “The Philadelphia Inquirer,” wrote in 2006 of Freeman’s reissued “Ishi’s Journey” as the editor’s monthly pick: “This is a wise and wonderful book. “If Ishi does not occasionally move you to tears, then you must be in need of a heart transplant.” Currently, James Freeman spends his time teaching, writing and traveling with his Pennsylvania family, often visiting his northern Californian homeland family, savoring his other place of patria, or else taking fun trips with family and friends to Cape May, N.J.
Rating: 
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Christopher Bursk –
Jim Freeman’s “Temporary Roses Dipped in Liquid Gold” begins with a moving tribute that sets the tone for this book of deeply felt poems. Master storyteller that he is, Jim lets down the rope ladder of his short lines and invites us to climb down into a world whose presiding spirits are his hundred-year-old grandmother and his then
not-quite-ready-to-be-born daughter as well as by legendary Ishi, and a recently departed Zen Buddhist friend. This is a world which encompasses much: the Shoshone, the DAR, fat waxy blueberries, cool water and cosmic sand, Mt. Shasta, Maui, a Chevelle 396, a 300 lb winch, bottle-brown reeds. Like all accomplished storytellers, Jim Freeman creates a richly evocative landscape of discovery and loss, challenge and courage, and we are better for our explorations of it with him. –Dr. Christopher Bursk