Kirjahaku

A story of pioneers and family, racism and white privilege, the contemporary epidemics of houselessness and addiction, and the changing roles of religion and skepticism. It's a Eugene, Oregon, story with sushi, cussing, a smidgen of LSD, and of course, the Roving Park Players. It is the story of the making of an opera.Derek Lamson, John Williams, and Brandon Buerkle take a new and completely contemporary look at the story of the Gadarene Demoniac, found in the Gospel of Mark, in this fast-paced, Oregon-based re-telling from the perspective of the unnamed man chained to a tomb. Any American witnessing the national epidemic of houselessness, drug abuse, and mental illness will recognize that this story is our story.

His Modest Debut: Poems 1970s-1980s invites you to the best of Derek Lamson's early poetry, already imbued with the musicality and imagery that would become the hallmark of his later songwriting. This collection captures the voice of a young man: a husband at sea longing for his wife, a deckhand cleaning up and remembering a friend, and a journeyman poet laying out his tools and tasks under good light. In every line, Lamson's life pulses through- "The full moon is here, the sun striking the waves in time." This second edition, enhanced with powerful words from the 1990s to present, reveals the poet's journey through getting sober, playing guitar, and confronting love, death, and God. The added articles bring a mature perspective, blending bracing vividness with a drier humor. From a salesman's cigarette break meditation to a muddy morning in Galilee, a prayer from a sober-living house, to a Quaker music visit to a veteran's hospital, Derek emerges deepened by age, loss, and persistent hope.