Charlene Fix

Poems authored by Kezia Sproat over several decades that examine life in Ohio and the United States, as well as commentary on social, economic, and political issues in clear voice and unsparing vision. Her images are crisp, insightful, even-handed and to the point, sophisticated without artifice and electric in surprises and turns.

Compilation of poems authored by Kezia Sproat over several decades. Poems examine life in Ohio and the United States as well as commentary on social, economic, and political issues. As noted by Ken Briedenbaugh, "Here is a collection of short poetic works which illuminate the large and small, the near and far, the once and then and here and now, each in clear voice and unsparing vision. Sproat's subjects include the academy, the urban scene, the role of women in farm and home, generational faultlines and the complexities of family and friends. Her images are crisp, insightful, even-handed and to the point, sophisticated without artifice and electric in surprises and turns. If poetry is a condensation of life lived and worlds observed, and it is, these works are exemplars of the form." Phil Boiarski, noted poet and writer, states, "Kezia Sproat's Tuwyn takes you into her vibrant world. Its poems sketch portraits of people, playful and personal, and glimpse images that show how the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Its poems are landscapes, local and exotic, populated by creatures alive with language and lyric. Touching on life and death, deeply profound and yet light as a feather, her work is refreshingly original."

Here's a book of poems for those who love animals and those who love words.

The author invites readers to spend time in the pleasure of Harpo's cinematic company while comparing him to tricksters from folklore, myth and legend. The book demonstrates how Harpo, the sweetest, wildest, most magical Marx brother, accomplishes the archetypal trickster's work. Thirteen chapters examine Harpo's trickster persona closely in each of the Marx Brothers' films: The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store, A Night in Casablanca and Love Happy. Harpo as trickster embodies luck, foolishness, cleverness, mania, hunger, lust, stealing, shape-shifting, gender-bending, alliance with underdogs, attacks on the powerful, musicality, sympathy for animals, magic and mischief. His trickster behaviors in all the films are woven into a composite impression that "with a little luck, will resonate beyond the covers of this book and leak out into the world, making it a more just, flexible, resilient, amusing and magical place."