We're All Stories in the End

Chris Dean's brilliant second book of poetry focuses on the stories that make each of us who we are, the stories that connect us.A Debt of WordsI don't want anything from poetry,I want to give back to it.I want to speak balmsand antidotesthat comfort and heal,sing connectionsand write repairsso we all feel less alone,blaze pathsand clear overgrowthso others can find their way.I don't want anything from poetry.I'd rather write to repaythe debt of words I oweto those who have donethe same for me.****One morning, years ago, as I drove my giant tractor across a coal barren wilderness, working for Kentucky Reclamation, reclaiming strip mined lands, I prayed for a miracle, a sign of hope to show me I was on the right path, finding a way to survive, helping to heal the earth, and live free as a rebel poet. As I prayed I looked up and there was a white doveflying six feet above my head. That's how Chris Dean's poems arrived from out of the blue. Miracles, prayers answered. Poems from the creative forces of the universe channeled through the pages of WE'RE ALL STORIES in THE END. Chris Dean's poems are diamonds.Chris Dean is a new voice to be reckoned with. WE'RE ALL STORIES in THE END is a masterpiece.Ron Whitehead, U.S. National Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate