Readers will find themselves underlining Douglas Cole’s rich and many-sided new poems in the collection, The Blue Island. Cole is a masterful poet of both long-march poems and brief lyric pieces. Cole’s poems are oceanic, full of force and fury. Red Shuttleworth, author of Straight Ahead, Homeward, High Plains Fandango and many more works of poetry and drama

In The Blue Island, Douglas Cole’s poems appear on the page like high-speed films or Fourth of July fireworks. The language is rapid-fire, and you’re swept away by the rush of words, a tap turned on full blast.

Edward Harkness, author of Beautiful Passing Lives, Ice Children, and The Law of the Unforeseen

The poems of Douglas Cole’s The Blue Island are wrought in the rich topography of film noir and the fever-dreams of Coleridge’s ancient mariner. Cole’s images are often looming and restless, even sublime. The Blue Island is sweeping, ardent, and skillfully rendered.

Jeffrey Alfier, author of The Red Deer at Carrbridge, The Storm Petrel and many more books of poetry, as well as Founder and Co-editor of Blue Horse Press and San Pedro River Review

The Blue Island is a cornucopia of a book, ranging from fine lyrics to long narratives, filled with everything from fantasy to hard-eyed examinations of life. You’ll find so much here, so don’t miss out.

Bradley Strahan, author of This Art of Losing, A Parting Glass and other award-winning poetry collections; he is also Publisher of Visions International