HELLO THERE

by DeWitt Clinton

The poems in Hello There explore myriad ways of feeling loss, or losing someone precious, perhaps elderly friends, or fellow soldiers, or feeling losses through Chinese myth or an Irish rune. Something valuable, desired, is now lost in memory, and sometimes even that memory is lost.

112 pages, Paperback

Published November 10, 2021

About the author

American politician DeWitt Clinton as governor of New York from 1817 to 1823 and from 1825 to 1828 principally supported the completed Erie Canal.

Battery, also Battery Park, provides the site of castle Clinton, built in 1808 for the defense of the harbor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWitt_...

Reviews

[Deirdre Fagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate to read an ARC of this book this past summer. DeWitt Clinton’s powerful new poetry collection, Hello There, is part lament, part meditation, part gratitude. Conversational and intimate, Clinton matter-of-factly reminds readers, “ready or not” “something is out there and coming.” Contemplative and philosophical, the collection balances portent with empathy. Readers are invited to embrace what there is and the journey because “…the purpose?/ Really it’s just to live.” Clinton lends matter to what really matters. In so doing, the collection becomes a communal experience as the author reminds us we are all on similar journeys of aging, memory loss, and ultimately the loss of each other, ourselves, and possibly the planet. We are not overwhelmed by the weight because we are not alone—the poet is “still here…word by word.”