One of my favorite memories of last year is the serendipitous breakfast I had with Lori in Pittsburgh. A group of us were gearing up for our second day at REACH and we needed coffee and the line was too long at the hotel. So we found a coffee shop around the corner from the venue and inside the door was Lori!

I crashed her solitary breakfast, joined by another friend who is unnamed because she’s currently in a closed country. We were three friends who are never ever together: Lori from Thailand, our friend headed to the far east, and me, and we talked as fast as we could around our coffees and shared breakfast sandwiches. Lori was so brave in her cloud of jetlag, and very gracious because she had come to be alone, and we didn’t give her a chance to stay alone. We talked about words and travel and introverts and time zones and I needed to leave way too soon.

Now, a year later, I get to hold and read and announce Lori’s new book of poetry! It has been fun to watch it evolve from a distance. I’ve seen some of the poems before via her blog, but reading them on paper is a far better experience.

Most poets have recurring themes they visit. My themes often circle around light and darkness. Lori’s themes are often about specific places, geography, and distance between places. But the places are fully embodied, never only about dust or wind or water or airports, but also the deep wells of memories, hopes, loves, and griefs connected to those places.

And I love the way she uses repetition to give weight to her lines. When I finish reading a poem, I feel a little thud of recognition and wistfulness because I understand without knowing fully, and I wish I could write like that.

I also love how Lori’s poems give a nod to or enter conversation with other poems and their writers. Like this one:

Lori loves widely and deeply across the time zones and cultures. Her daily life of teaching English and living in a foreign country both enrich her and cost her deeply. I especially love how she pours out her life for her students. She makes it look easy and happy but I know there’s much I can’t see.

One of her talented students illustrated this book and did a fantastic job. I’m paging through the book now, trying to choose the best poem and illustration to share here, but I can’t choose. You will have to get your own copy, and quickly!

Ordering details from Lori’s blog:

If you’re in the US, you can order a copy for $10 on Amazon here: US Amazon link

You can also order it on Kindle for $6.99 if you prefer to read on Kindle: US Kindle

If you’re in Canada, you can find for $13.66 it at this link: Canada Amazon Link

If you prefer to order directly, you can send me an email at georgeinthailand620@gmail.com, or call me at 620-878-0733, or wherever else you already have my contact information. Allow 7-14 days for your order to arrive. For the US, expect shipping to be around 3 dollars with 50 cents added on for each book. For Canada, shipping is $4.25 with 75 cents added on for each extra book. For direct orders from Canada, I can only accept Paypal, no checks.

Are you wondering if you should order on Amazon or order directly? If you’re not in a hurry, and it’s before April 20, feel free to order directly. I’ll be around to send out the orders (I’m home in Kansas until April 26) and I make a little more money through direct orders, and Amazon gets less. This is always a good thing, no?