Robert Pack

"Robert Pack's new volume of poetry, Composing Voices: A Cycle of Dramatic Monologues, is a fabulously expanded version of his 1984 book, Faces in a Single Tree. In each of the poems a single person is talking to one other person to whom he is intimately related, creating deep dramatic tension: a father talking to a bereaved daughter or puzzled son; a sister confronting a sister gone astray or a brother to whom she is confessing her compromised pregnancy; husbands and wives, old and young, reviewing some crisis of their lives together. Combined with these human dramas are the dramas of nature. Pack inherits Robert Frost's sensitivity to the minutiae of spectacle and evolution, the mysteries of God and Darwin's theories. He regards these with humor and compassion. And, perhaps miraculously, but surely most wisely, he does it all within the regulations and beauties of blank verse. Pack has added to his first cycle of monologues some characters who are not necessarily related by blood. Here we find relations of professional intimacy--lawyer and client, doctor and patient. All possible human concerns are excavated in these poems: humans and God, humans and the environment, humans and their most significant others, including pet monkeys and ghosts. All these characters are, of course, the creations of a single mind, that of the author's. In this new book, Pack has included a prologue and epilogue that explain his rationale for such a work of human exploration through fictional invention."--Publisher's website.

With characteristic sensitivity and intelligence, Robert Pack reflects on man's relation to and responsibilities toward nature. Throughout, his verses are informed by an ecological vigilance born of his devotion to the New England landscape. The opening section marks a return for Pack to the musical sensuality of the lyric. These short lyrics are uniquely his: the sequence begins in Vermont and concludes in the Andromeda galaxy, providing an opportunity to hold in mind the nurturing sun of our solar system. The poems of the collection's middle section, written in the flowing narrative and meditative mode familiar to Pack's many admirers, take up the themes of human sexuality and consciousness. And the final section, replete with puns and paradoxes, shows Pack at his most playful as he muses on art, technology, romantic and marital desire, and the stubborn longing for transcendence. The poet concludes the volume with a sobering plea, "The Trees Will Die," to heed the sun's example, to cherish and protect our planet and all its living things.

A sequence of poems revolving around Clayfeld, a sculptor and comic everyman, celebrating the triumphs and losses of life.

Allen Carmichael came back from Vietnam a lifetime ago--but only now was he ready to return home. For years, he’s lived on the fringes of the law, using a soldier’s skills to keep watch over those too young to defend themselves. Some consider him nothing but a kidnapper for hire--the best in the business; others call him a hero. His specialty has been rescuing children from abusive parents and escorting them to loving homes. But after twenty-five years, he is ready to take on his final case--a case that could destroy him. The boy’s name is Jamie: He believes his father is going to kill him. Allen is convinced that the twelve-year-old is right and devises a strategy to save him. His last job done, Allen heads back to Folly Island, where he plans to settle into a quiet life. But not long after his return, a small plane piloted by the boy’s father’s crashes, leaving behind debris--but no body. Now it is up to Allen to resolve whether Jamie’s father is dead or alive--and to make sure Jamie himself stays out of harm’s way. But a series of ominous events leads Allen to question whether Jamie’s father is really the enemy after all. Or if the real threat is far more unspeakable...and the killer unimaginable. Riveting, harrowing, and unforgettable, Keeping Watch takes psychological suspense to its most dizzying heights and proves again why Laurie R. King has been called by both readers and critics an undisputed master of suspense.

GWP is honored to publish a new collection of poems from Robert Pack, poet and teacher, entitled All One Breath, whose underlying theme is humankind’s kinship with the other inhabitants of the earth. The poems address the grim vision of how our irresponsible actions have endangered this fragile home planet but also they celebrate with their sheer exuberance and lyricism how the imagination can still save us with humor, insight, and tender regard for what endures. By turns elegiac and playful, sassy and humorous, the poems provide both the long visionary view of almost nine decades of being a witness in the world. This distinguished poet, has never been more compelling, more comfortably authoritative in his poetic line, more precise as an observer, or indeed more wise.-Publisher