Finally, my author copies of Moons, Roads, and Rivers have arrived! The press was running behind, and the holidays slowed things down even more, but here the little lovelies are and I’m very happy with them.
Since my batch came straight from the printer, the preorder copies will be a few days yet before they arrive at your doors. Thank you! If you haven’t ordered yet, you can by visiting Finishing Line Press’s site, or by contacting your favorite, hopefully, indie bookstore.
I say all of this because several people have contacted me saying that they are worried that their order got lost. Probably not. Just a very overwhelmed press with a release time too close to the holidays. From what they are saying, it might be until the 16th before some of you have your copies. I am so very sorry about that.
If you don’t have yours by the 17th of January, please email them directly at MissingBookOrders@finishinglinepress.com. Tell them you ordered Moons, Roads, and Rivers by David J. Bauman, and be sure to mention your correct shipping address. They will have someone look into this email daily in case of missing orders.
If you are new here and haven’t been subject to my incessant self-promotion, Moons, Roads, and Rivers is my first chapbook. It’s a collection of both old and newer poems. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time on the road and a fair amount of time on, in, or by the river. I grew up along the West Branch of the Susquehanna and now live on the far North Branch. In between, I lived where the two branches meet. But the poems also recall college days in the flatlands of Indiana as well as the wooded hills of central Pennsylvania.
I was divorced from my sons’ mother for most of their lives, so I’ve racked up a lot of driving poems, and since much of that driving was at night, the moon showed up frequently in those pieces. It seemed like a good idea to combine these works and see how they might come together in a small collection, and I think I’m very happy with the result.
Mostly, I think these are mood and memory pieces. From childhood to fatherhood, it’s the feelings evoked by those travels, those surroundings that permeate these poems, more than any particular “message.”
I hope you enjoy them and order a copy of the chapbook for yourself. I’ll be sharing some information about upcoming readings (You can also check my Events page) and, of course, as is my habit, I’ll be recording a few on SoundCloud and Youtube soon!
David J. Bauman 
Congratulations, David. This must feel so satisfying, to have these poems out there at last. I love your title!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Deborah!
LikeLike
David, my belated CONGRATULATIONS on your chapbook. It looks beautiful, and I’m going to go order my copy right now! I’m so delighted your beautiful words are collected in print here. Hooray for you and your poems!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jennifer! I so appreciate that. My next chapbook, Angels & Adultery, will come out later this year from Seven Kitchens Press as part of the Robin Becker series. A full announcement on that upcoming shortly. Thank you for providing me so much inspiration and encouragement these several years!
LikeLike
I particularly liked “Father” and “Bubble Gum.” The first allows a metaphor to carry the weight without going into specific personal details that might not work in a poem. The second is a wonderful mystery: why paint on nature, and why such an odd phrase? “Road Call” is so uncomfortable to read; was it difficult to write? I was going to ask how you decided on the order of the poems, until I realized they follow the moon, road, river sequence through most of the book. I assume that’s no accident.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am impressed that you picked up on the pattern! I figured that would be a subtle way of ordering them. The entire sequence of 18 poems are bookended by an old Moon poem, “Moon Watcher,” and “Overvision,” which refers to the first. In between they are organized, moon, road, river, moon, road, river . . . until the final trio which switches it up to go road, river, moon in order to achieve that sandwich between the two related pieces. 🙂
I was surprised by how many people at readings have commented on “Bubble Gum.” Thank you for what you said about “Father.” Yes, “Road Call” was hard to write. You’re the second person to comment on it. Surprisingly, it hit a young man of 24 rather hard. I’ve always had a difficult time with that poem. I think I still do now. Leaving it hanging in the end really mirrors how I felt as a single dad and how it felt to write the piece.
The next chapbook, Angels & Adultery comes out from Seven Kitchens Press in the next few weeks, and it was, as a whole, much harder to write, but probably more therapeutic. It’s far more confessional in nature, and even when the facts are not entirely historical, it’s very personal in nature and even when the speaker isn’t entirely “me,” it’s still a form of me, emotionally.
Anyway, Brian, the feedback is precious to me. Thank you for giving it.
LikeLiked by 1 person