Songs Sharp and Tender
A new book of poetry from Carol Park
Upcoming Event:
Zoom reading on January 5, at 1 p.m. I give background to poems that I read and ask for questions/ response/stories from those attending, interspersed throughout the reading. The ending time will vary with how much the audience participates! The zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsde6srzkqHd0GROkuisdYeyD_8PDJ8nbK Calendar it now!
Praise from a very accomplished poet and university professor:
“Carol Park’s gorgeous and poignant debut collection, Songs Sharp and Tender, is a love letter to the self in relationship with others and the earth, even as it holds space for the grief and loss that always attends deep love. The poems interrogate fraught identities, personal and political, mapping out a path to wholeness and redemption. Park reflects on the vulnerability of loved ones and the joys and burdens of bearing a self into the world. Through all comes an affirmation of forgiveness and reconciliation sustaining us in a bewildering and beautiful world.” —Heathen Durr
My bio:
Carol Park teaches ESL, volunteers in a jail, hikes, gardens, cooks, and reads. Pursuing various geographies—cultural, physical, and spiritual—delights her. Her poetry appears in SLANT, Minerva Rising, The Haight Ashbury Journal, Black Fox Literary, MiGoZine, Monterey Poetry Review, The Broadkill Review, California Quarterly, New Contexts 2, 3, and 4, and Ginosko Literary, among others. Her MFA comes from Seattle Pacific University. In September2024, Kelsay Press released her poetry book, Songs Sharp and Tender, touching on travel and the choppy waves of family life while adapting to an inter-cultural relationships.
Non-poetry readers spending time with my book have shocked me of late!
The techie husband of a friend wrote: Carol,
we are thoroughly enjoying your poetry. It is truly the finest I have ever encountered. I won’t return the book to (my wife) unless she pleads for it back. It’s clear that you have poured your heart and soul into this work, and it shines through. The stories are deeply moving, drawing readers into the intimate and spiritual realm of your mind in a surreal manner, where you share your joys and frustrations with remarkable honesty.
A woman at church excitedly grabbed me a few weeks back. She'd bought a book because she attended a garden party poetry reading. She hadn't read poems since high school. Of late, only news. But she enthused about how thoroughly she was enjoying it. "I didn't know poetry could be about so many things and so relatable and so varied in how it's written! I read one poem before bed every night."
That’s my aim—to make poetry for all!
