The Way You Run in Dreams by Tim Cremin

To read the poems of The Way You Run in Dreams is to discover Tim Cremin’s sense of wonder for the natural and human world. Centering on the poet’s everyday life, the lyrics include observations made on his walks in the woods and interactions with loved ones. Cremin has a gift for dramatic lyric portraits, as seen in the well-crafted “Totaled” and in “Pumpkin Carving Time.” A recurring theme is time’s inexorable effects on his subjects and here the poet does not spare himself, as we discover in the humorous “Mr. Beach.” Throughout, there’s an attention to the poetic line and often a humor that keeps us reading. Any dark turn or disappointment is often countered by a life force, as the comeback staged by a race horse in the title poem, “The Way You Run in Dreams.” I look forward to many more books by this gifted poet.

–Kathleen Aponick, author of Bright Realm and The Port

Tim Cremin’s spare poems are full of treasures, sparked by simple moments, such as watching a horse race, taking a walk, or picking up a trumpet. Cremin has a sharp eye and a finely tuned ear, hearing music in the everyday, working on a small scale, with potent results. In the sonnet, “At Marston’s Landing,” the poet hears “…the god’s fluid music…/like shards of the one glass silence shattering,/source of all sound, and all else flowing by.” These poems reveal a world the reader recognizes, yet with continual surprises, and images that jolt. The Way You Run in Dreams asks to be read and re-read.

–Helena Minton, author of The Canal Bed and The Gardener and the Bees