Forecast: Poems

Floyd Collins's book of poems ‘FORECAST’, confronts the richness and tragedy of human the wonder of the turning seasons, the significance of rites of passage, and the profound variety of human responses to the omnipresence of death. The book’s various tableaux capture the lives of people in both urban and rural settings with vivid, distinctive language and imagery. Whether they touch on elements of the supernatural or the everyday, these poems retain an air of mystery and display an occasional twinge of humor. Forecast presents a poetry of essences, a compelling vision of human life. “The richness and depth of Floyd Collins‘s vision is matched in these poems by an equal richness of language and imagery. Apt description is everywhere enlivened by the reach of metaphor. These are fine poems indeed." —~Peter Stitt "Like the jewels and geometries that frequently occur in them. Floyd Collins's poems are themselves gems--each chiselled image a facet that brilliantly reflects some element of the natural world or human experience. Whether rueful or joyous, reflective or objective, these lyrics display their maker's love and mastery of language-- language he hones to exquisite, often astonishing beauty. ” --Susan Ludvigson FLOYD COLLINS is the author of two limited edition collections of poetry, Scarecrow ( Ion Books, 1980) and The Wedding Guest (Ptarmigan Chapbooks, 1987). Bom in Charleston, South Carolina, he grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He has served as poetry editor to the Memphis State Review and as Poet-in-Residence at the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery in Memphis. The recipient of three Peter Foundation Fellowships, he received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. He currently teaches European and English Literature at the University of Arkansas.