The Willow Tree and other Inclinations

Description

SHEILA PACKA SAYS…”The poems in The Willow Tree by George Gott evoke the Tao Te Ching. They begin in simplicity and speak in the voice of a spiritual teacher…..

Oh yes my eyes are open.
Oh yes the dogwood.
A thing of reality.
The Lord is declaring.
the blossom of peace.

The lines have a spare beauty. Some of the poems’ structures evoke rituals of benediction and praise and others contain questions we ask of life. The titles of the poems, numbered like chapter and verse, seem to be from an esoteric book of wisdom, perhaps a larger manuscript he still keeps.
Gott speaks against war, violence and greed. Like ink drawings, the white space is as important as the clear and distilled images. Like a bell long after being struck, these poems ring.”

—Sheila Packa, Poet Laureate of Duluth, 2010-2012 author of Echo & Lightning and The Mother Tongue

MORE PRAISE FOR The Willow Tree

“From Gott’s invitation to the reader in his opening poem,

Will you follow me
down one hill
and up another one

to his assurance in the final piece that,

All things will be revealed
in the blessings of joy
the poet leads us on a journey through shadow and through light, in language that is spare, precise and evocative. The poems in this collection are woven together with threads that challenge us, that call us to live our lives and create a world, not of greed and power, but of compassion and peace.

Why do they scream at us?
The birds.
The birds.
They know
we will be making war
in the early spring.

These poems are woven together with shimmering strands of hope.

Yet a fire within us
is speaking as if in a dream
I close this book, grateful to the poet for sharing the voice of the fire within.”

—Deborah Gordon Cooper Poet,Under the Influence of Lilacs