Shell Songs

A poet’s book is like a chicken’s nest: a lot of straw but sometimes you find an egg. The eggs in this collection-and there are many-are among the finest out there.They rhyme and scan but subtly, quietly. They aren’t showy about it. They see technique as necessary but secondary or auxiliary to the real business of poetry which is feeling, emotion. And there’s a ton of emotion in Miller’s best poems. He mainly writes about love, death, loss and bereavement, but he isn’t sappy or naive about it. His best work resists easy literal paraphrase in the classic Dickinson slant manner, but without being cryptic. To this end he often deploys metaphors of land and sea, seasides and beaches. As life and love end in death, so the seaside meets the sea. Another of Miller’s strong suits is his Frostian ability to infuse rhyme and meter with the naturalness of human speech. A collection to be grateful for by a poet to watch.

Pino, Editor of The Rotary Dial

With his effortless ability to make ordinary moments extraordinary, with his casual skill to twist a word or phrase into a lifetime of truths or half-truths (to shock us awake), with his drive to maximize musicality until meaning and form become one, Miller stands out as a fresh and vital voice in lyrical poetry.

Billie Travalini, Editor of Journal of Caribbean Literature

Take a deep breath in as you read James Miller’s Shell Songs and you will smell the briny sea air, while ever-changing images and words roll by in waves of shadow and light.

Nancy Mellichamp Savo, Associate Editor of The Lyric