Disturbing the Light

by Samuel Green

Through the course of numerous books, Samuel Green has established his primary poetic preoccupations, and in  Disturbing the Light , he continues to mine them, addressing rituals and work in a small, isolated, rural community; the influence of the past on the present, especially in families; and the nature and evolution of a love that has spanned five decades. Added to these themes is something Poems written in response to symptoms of late onset PTSD. Though Green’s Coast Guard service in Vietnam ended in the fall of 1969, memories have returned recently in vivid, disturbing details, amplified by the haunting knowledge that civilians in Southeast Asia are still, today, suffering death and injury from unexploded ordnance left over from that war. A powerful collection that reminds us that our past is always with us, even as we attend carefully to the present, Disturbing the Light is a masterwork from a poet at the height of his powers.  

88 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2020

About the author

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads

See also:
Samuel Green, 1768-1859
Samuel B. Green, SPSS
Samuel Bowdlear Green, 1859-1910, forestry

Reviews

[Jacob D. Salzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really beautiful collection of poetry that interweaves human psychology with nature. These poems include owls, elk, fish, and slugs. I deeply appreciate the ecology and perspectives in Samuel Green's poetry. Disturbing the Light is a poetry collection to be savored by an experienced and celebrated poet. I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Jacob D. Salzer, author of Sea Wind: Haiku (Lulu.com, 2025), A Lost Prophet (Brooks Books, 2024), and Unplugged (Lulu.com, 2022) and a previous managing editor of Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America