THE COLOR AFTER GREEN by H. R. Spencer

“Randy Spencer has a keen eye for the natural world and he possesses the vivid language that allows his readers to share in seeing the world anew, as we see in such lovely images as ‘sloths hang like large fruits in umbrella trees.’ The Color After Green is a book I greatly admire.”

–Ron Rash

“In poem after gorgeous poem Randy Spencer reminds us of the catastrophe human carelessness is on the brink of producing. This is not news. But the power of language simultaneously to delight and frighten is at its peak in this collection. Beauty and tragedy are often linked, but not so often in ways that show us on the ultimate precipice.”

–Susan Ludvigson

“Randy Spencer‘s The Color After Green brims with the ‘dimpled symmetries’ of human expression and the dynamic, surprising landscapes from which a poet takes a lifetime of soundings. These intelligent, compelling poems sing of a living engagement with the natural world, its winds and waters and small, wild creatures rendered here with brushstrokes as painterly as they are poetic. This book is beautiful and important, with something real to show  and a story to tell true–indeed, Spencer’s is ‘the poetry to fall back on,’ and these poems will reward many return expeditions ‘into the kingdom of ferns’.”

–Tara Powell