Moments Strange

Ed Block's poetry is full of powerful images and rich language. In his nature poems, the flowers of spring bud "like fireworks ready to burst," fall trees "get naked for a wild romp with the wind," and crows in autumn become "broken pieces of the night." Thus, the annual change of seasons becomes a metaphor for the changing seasons of a human life. Moments Strange, takes us on a journey from a nomadic childhood to the purposeful world travels of his young adulthood, and to the loss that we all experience as we age. The title poem precedes the several well-ordered sections, and sets a perfect tone for what follows: poems of "the nitty-gritty everyday," of "memories of home and faraway," of a "life in large outline." Moments Strange is a poetic memoir to be savored.

• Ed Werstein, Regional Vice President, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and author of A Tar Pit To Dye In, Benediction and Baseball, and Communique

Ed Block teaches us how to love fully the world around us with every word he writes. Filled with wit and wonder, Moments Strange spans seasons, memories, and continents with a grace that readers are sure to savor.

• Michael Welch, Awards Director at Chicago Review of Books and 2016 National Federation of State Poetry Societies' Florence Kahn Memorial Award winner

Ed Block's new collection, Moments Strange, ranges from the Midwestern USA to Africa, and travels across time as well, but it is always rooted in the real (and yes, strange) world of landscape and memory. As Block writes in one poem: "The evergreen is full of voices/Speaking alien, avian words." This beautiful book reflects and magnifies moments from a life well lived.

• Angela Sorby, Professor of English, Marquette University, and author of the Sleeve Waves, Bird Skin Coat, and Distance Learning