Not Quite Pilgrims

"Ken Hada’s Not Quite Pilgrims presents a natural world brimming with promise: there are owls in the trees, trout in the rivers, and wild geese in “feral skies”; there is a “chestnut mare” leaning over the fence that contains her; there is the weighted and meaningful “stillness of stars.” In such a place, the shimmering fish pulled briefly from its cool stream into the bright air serves as confirmation that the humble fisherman belongs, and that we are all given “a moment’s chance to hold beauty.” Though there are shadows in these poems—the shadows of humankind’s hate and destruction, and the shadow of death—the work itself is “undeterred in darkness,” and the light breaks through. It is in the appreciation of simple wonders often taken for granted—birdsong, music, rain, morning coffee, trees, the sky—that “truth begins,” and we can start to find our redemption." -Chera Hammons, author of The Traveler’s Guide to Bomb City