OUR VARIOUS SELVES is a collection of poetry from
four writers, Linda Blaskey, Isabelle Bohl, Jack Mackey, and jim bourey.
18.95
I believe farmers like Linda Blaskey make
the best teachers—they provide while helping us see the benefits of
being both multi-talented and resourceful—the best teachers train us all
to observe, to research and to document and to follow through. It’s the
warmth of familiarity that is being provided here—we get the poems from
Linda and her dear friends Jack, Isabelle and Jim because collectively
they certainly get all of us.
Rob Greene, founder and publisher of Raleigh Review
This volume collects the works of four
exceptional poets whose voices are all dynamic and distinctive. In truly
original ways, these poets illuminate the most vital of subjects: nature
and self-awareness; the joys, challenges, and losses within all human
bonds; how the past enlivens us as a continuous presence. Each poet
finds beauty and poignancy in their experiences, expressing them through
cadences of insight and trust—in their discoveries and ours—and always
with an honesty whose edges remain unmistakable.
Donald McNutt, Editor Emeritus Blueline Magazine
Four beautifully different voices in one
rich volume: Linda Blaskey’s elegant poems speak how the world calls us
back from the dark—pastoral, but never pastel. Jack Mackey’s poems live
in the bruised and bruising world--poems of steady, loving witness.
Isabelle Bohl’s poems think their way through complex questions,
anchored in images from the natural world which often intersect in
surprising ways with the human-made. Jim Bourey’s poems are maps for
understanding that, though we age, we change, and we lose, we fill our
hearts and carry light with us.
Devon Miller-Duggan, Author of The Slow Salute
Four esteemed poets, each with a unique
voice, celebrate their diversity and craft in this stunning
collaboration. Through vivid imagery, incisive language, and a
willingness to take risks, they explore the ironies of aging, a mother’s
difficult pregnancy during World War II, the sudden death of a child, a
dissolving marriage and the vagaries of the natural world. No matter who
you are, you will find yourself in this superb collection.
Irene Fick, Author, The Fragility of Winter
Linda Blaskey, recipient of the 2022
Masters Fellowship in Poetry from Delaware Division of the Arts, is past
coordinator for Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, past poetry/interview editor
for Broadkilll Review, and current editor of Quartet, an online poetry
journal for women fifty and over. She is the author of the prizewinning
chapbook Farm, full-length collection White Horses, and co-author of
Walking the Sunken Boards, and Season of Harvest. Her work was included
in Best New Poets 2014. She lives on a small horse and goat farm in
southern Delaware with her husband, twelve cats, and a dog.
Jack Mackey grew up in New York and earned
his M.A. in English from the University of Maryland. His first book of
poems, Up, Out & Over (Kelsay Books) was published in 2024 and won first
prize from the Delaware Press Association. Jack was awarded a fellowship
in poetry by the Delaware Division of the Arts and was selected for the
Disquiet International literary program in Lisbon, Portugal. Individual
poems have appeared in Gargoyle, Third Wednesday, Broadkill Review,
Impostor, Anti-Heroin Chic, Mobius, and other literary publications.
Jack lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Wilton Manors, Florida.
Isabelle Bohl was born and raised in
France. She attended college in the US where she studied Biology and
Linguistics. After teaching English as a Second language in Virginia,
she retired to the Northern Adirondacks, where she began writing poetry.
She is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in journals such
as Glassworks, Quartet, and Rat’s Ass Review. Her poems can also be
found in anthologies (Voices 2024 and Voices 2025, Cold River Press, and
others). She now lives in the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
jim bourey is a poet from the northern edge
of the Adirondacks. His collection, Out There and Back Again, from Cold
River Press, was released in April 2023. His previous book, The Distance
Between Us, was also published by Cold River Press in 2020. In 2022,
Season of Harvest, a collaborative collection with noted poet Linda
Blaskey, was published by Pond Road Press. jim’s first book was a
chapbook called Silence, Interrupted, published by Broadkill River Press
in 2015. His work has also appeared in many journals and anthologies,
and he is a contributing editor for the Broadkill Review. Currently jim
is the organizer of many poetry events in northern New York. And he can
still be found reading aloud in dimly lit rooms. jim lives in Dickinson
Center, NY with his wife Linda, who has provided photographs for many of
jim’s projects.
