As promised, Samantha Terrell’s Felling Trees: Selected Poems 2000-2025 from Low Hanging Fruit Publishing is now available! You can order through Amazon or ask your favorite bookstore to order it for you.
The publisher describes the collection: “Felling Trees gathers twenty-five years of sharp, unflinching verse from Pushcart and Forward Prize-nominated poet Samantha Terrell. Known for her clarity of vision and emotional honesty Terrell charts the evolution of a voice both politically alert and deeply personal. With selections from acclaimed collections and anthologized work, this retrospective offers a resonant exploration of resilience, justice, and human connection.”
One of the things I most enjoy about Samantha Terrell’s work is her extensive use of nature imagery, which she brings to bear in conversation with our present day issues. Here is a sample of that from the collection:
Fourth of July at the Beach
Fireworks burst, then fall in glittery strands
Like willow tree branches
Stretch to the earth –
White phosphorous bursts –
Disappearing into
Liquid blackness.
The rhythmic roar
Of the ocean’s engine drones on –
A reliable backdrop;
Steady slaps on a shore
That we, in ignorance
Or arrogance,
Still dare to call America.
Here, where
Colors rage against the sky,
We wait to see
If this great experiment
Can survive its newest threat
Of tyranny,
And we
Can save us
From ourselves.
*****
Congratulations, Samantha, on your new collection! Thank you to Low Hanging Fruit for bringing it into print!
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Joanne Corey 