Kirjahaku

"a Flag on Fire is a Song of Hope" is a 2019 Scars Publications poetry book by John Sweet. This was originally a 2019 chapbook release through the literary magazine Down in the Dirt (http: //scars.tv/dirt) for Scars Publications (http: //scars.tv). This chapbook by John Sweet was later turned into the 6" x 9" ISBN# book.

selected poems from the upstate wilderness. lost poems. found poems. 2007, 62 pp. 2nd printing.

John Sweet writes about the tragedies of life with a sharp knife, cutting through the hypocrisy of the times we live in. Within his words, there is a terrible, haunting and disturbing - but above all, honest. - Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal John has been a mainstay small press poet for as long as I can remember his voice ringing out, prevalent and relevant, exposing contemporary political, social, economic and personal issues for what they truly are. John's style is vivid, clear and edgy, pulling no punches, telling it like it is, reminding us that certain actions, behaviors, and ideologies are never acceptable and that we need to be better than we are if we expect to survive beyond today with any modicum of fair-play, decency, honor, and self-respect. He expresses what needs to be expressed. This special book contains many of John's best poems, vivid, sculpted perfectly, precisely, leaping off the pages, no ambiguity or agnosticism, no equivocation here. John is not only a poet but also a prophet. I am always enlightened and engaged, sometimes amused and amazed when I read his poems. You will be too. There is no mistaking it: John Sweet is the real deal. - Michael Estabrook

In these poems, we find how the poet withdraws from outer experience to concentrate on the inner. These poems are full of amazing and deep imagination. It is evident that in all these poems there is present a rich style and a variety of melodies to attract the readers. It is quite remarkable that the poet has discarded the obsolete or worn-out phraseology. The poems are endowed with intense imagination, dreamy grace and subtle suggestion. All these poems become quite charming due to 'maturity, manifested in technique, of feeling in relation to thought'. BIOJohn Sweet (b. 1968) is a believer in writing as catharsis, and in poetry as a reason for getting up in the morning. He has been publishing in the small press for 30 years. Among his collections are A DEAD MAN, EITHER WAY (Kung Fu Treachery Press), BASTARD FAITH (Scars Publications), a series of acclaimed limited-edition chapbooks from Kendra Steiner Editions, and THE CENTURY OF DREAMING MONSTERS (winner of the 2014 Lummox Poetry Prize). He lives in upstate New York. All pertinent facts about his life are buried somewhere in his writing.