Kent Gramm

Striking photographic images paired with stories and statements by birds, mammals, and reptiles cast light on some of humanity's most sacred writings. Speaking rhinos and puffins are no more unlikely than talking humans; and considering where all of our talk has gotten us (the brink of extinction), it is time we listened to our fellow creatures. They are funny, thoughtful, observant, and like the Hebrew prophets they point out the worst in us and elicit the best, giving straight talk of warning and of hope. In these pages a pigeon with travel anxiety, Geraldine the matter-of-fact Florida Cooter, Schmidt the twigfitter songbird, Mephistophelean alligators, vanishing bison of the prairies, and lions of Africa and Asia ""hold . . . the mirror up to nature"" and show us our unlikely and imperfect human face.

Public Poems revisits American history in view of present-day events and personalities. From the Gold Rush and Mexican Cession to the Civil War, Sitting Bull, the Great Depression, and World War II; and from Elvis, Superman, and Ricky Nelson to Pine Ridge, the New York Yankees, the Vietnam War, Robert Kennedy, the moon landing, and today's politics, these religious and secular snapshots of our past and present give us mirror images of ourselves.

"From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." These words of Chief Joseph concluded a thousand-mile odyssey of 750 Nez Perce adults, children, and their elderly. Pursued by the US Army and Cavalry, the Nimiipuu fought battles, crossed the forbidding Bitterroot Mountains with their herds, and maintained their humanity and heritage against overwhelming odds. Bitterroot is dramatized history, giving voice to Joseph, Looking Glass, White Necklace, Half Man Half Woman, Howard "The Christian Soldier," Calamity Jane, and Yellowstone Kelley--providing a mirror with which to see ourselves today. It portrays a conflicted America: racism, religious intolerance, and greed at war with liberty and equality. Such an epic story reminds us of our common humanity. "It is for the young generation behind us," said Yellow Wolf. "I want the next generation of whites to know and treat the Indians as themselves."

"From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." These words of Chief Joseph concluded a thousand-mile odyssey of 750 Nez Perce adults, children, and their elderly. Pursued by the US Army and Cavalry, the Nimiipuu fought battles, crossed the forbidding Bitterroot Mountains with their herds, and maintained their humanity and heritage against overwhelming odds. Bitterroot is dramatized history, giving voice to Joseph, Looking Glass, White Necklace, Half Man Half Woman, Howard "The Christian Soldier," Calamity Jane, and Yellowstone Kelley--providing a mirror with which to see ourselves today. It portrays a conflicted America: racism, religious intolerance, and greed at war with liberty and equality. Such an epic story reminds us of our common humanity. "It is for the young generation behind us," said Yellow Wolf. "I want the next generation of whites to know and treat the Indians as themselves."

This spiritual manifesto was written for any reader seeking romantic fulfillment, environmental salvation, enlightenment, and a decent automobile. Journey to Shangri-La, Goethe's Germany, the Sweden of Willie Volvo and his Princess, the Poet's Path along the picturesque Neckar River, and the America of apple pie and Chevrolet. If all of civilization is on a mad, Faustian quest for material happiness, how can we find sanity, redemption, true love, and a good car?

This spiritual manifesto was written for any reader seeking romantic fulfillment, environmental salvation, enlightenment, and a decent automobile. Journey to Shangri-La, Goethe's Germany, the Sweden of Willie Volvo and his Princess, the Poet's Path along the picturesque Neckar River, and the America of apple pie and Chevrolet. If all of civilization is on a mad, Faustian quest for material happiness, how can we find sanity, redemption, true love, and a good car?

Gettysburg is a paradox: Today it is beautiful, still, and filled with visitors, yet this national military park serves as a powerful reminder of the clash of armies and the great loss of life that took place here nearly 150 years ago. Gettysburg: This Hallowed Ground explores this Civil War battleground through contemporary photographs by National Merit Award-winning photographer Chris Heisey and poems by noted Civil War author Kent Gramm. A brief synopsis of the Battle of Gettysburg and a map of the battlefield introduce the book. Gettysburg is a tribute to the soldiers who gave their lives here and to the military park that is a lasting reminder of our country's most devastating battle.

In his latest book, Kent Gramm examines the meaning of the Civil War experience in our lives and explores philosophical and personal aspects of the War that lie outside the scope of traditional historical study. He probes the meaning of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Antietam; the lives of U. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, O. O. Howard, and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce; and the legacy of the unknown participant, "somebody's darling," for whom the war would come to encompass all things. The Iron Brigade appears, along with its 20th-century successor, the 32nd "Red Arrow" Division. Readers of Gramm's previous books will not be surprised to find essays that touch on Walt Whitman, John Keats, Henrik Ibsen, and Halldor Laxness, as well as such literary and religious works as the Iliad and the Bhagavad Gita. Gramm also treats more popular fare, such as the movie Gettysburg and a series of books on the ghosts of Gettysburg. In each of his subjects, Gramm finds the deep, personal significance of the profoundly universal experience of the war, as he ponders the special meaning of the Civil War in the lives of many Americans.

It begins with the search for hallowed ground, the exact place from which Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. In bleak November, Kent Gramm makes a pilgrimage to the most famous battleground in American history and over the course of a month transforms his search into a discovery of the meaning of Lincoln's elegy for America's identity. For Gramm, the century that began with Lincoln's address and ended with the assassinations of the 1960s saw the destruction of the 'modern' world and with it America's sense of purpose. The book reflects on the November anniversaries of public events such as the Armistice that ended World War One, Kristallnacht, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the death of C. S. Lewis, the first major battle of the Vietnam War, and the publication of Robert F. Kennedy's To Seek a Newer World, and also on private events in Gramm's family history, provide the occasions for Gramm's meditations on public and private heroism, on modernism's hopes and postmodern despair. In November, he asks us to seek a path toward the 'new birth of freedom' that Lincoln envisioned at Gettysburg. "The month begins with things that perish. But ultimately, November is a journey of hope, as was Lincoln's journey to Gettysburg. So too I will journey to Gettysburg in these pages. Like Lincoln's fellow citizens, I go there to assuage personal grief, to find answers; and I hope, for me as for them, that my personal sorrows become a vehicle for larger answers and a larger purpose. Lincoln addressed their grief, why not mine; he gave his generation purpose, why not ours."

Allan Montague, born on a Mississippi plantation 20 years prior to the Civil War, has grown up with slavery and considers it natural. When his father moves to Boston, Allan hears a speech which will cement his transformation into an abolitionist and lead him back to the Deep South.