Praise for Coyote Bush
“In ‘Tracks’ Peter Nash describes lying down in the hollow of dry needles where a doe and her newborn fawn have lain. And this is what his poems allow us to do—to inhabit the experience of another being and in so doing, to deepen our own. This collection is rich with praise and rich with cold, clear truth-telling. I admire Peter Nash’s craft and courage.”
“Without ever shouting, Peter Nash’s poems of rural life are deeply moving, whether as elegy or celebration. They develop thier themes through inspired description that is both true to the immediate occasion and deeply resonant. This is a rich, wise, and delightful book.”
“Here’s a poet who has lived his life, not just imagined it. When he remembers the ‘arrowhead,’ ‘flickering tongue,’ and ‘black seeds’ of a snake’s eyes, you see them too. When ‘hooves thud in the meadow,’ you know he heard that sound. The book is a loose group of sequences, poems of love, of suffering, of sudden enlightenment, sometimes back to back, sometimes rising to the surface just when the reader is ready for them. One typical sequence—about the bony old mare put to pasture and then, when her legs begin to go, put down—reveals the man as well as the mare, also aging yet true to his time and place. ‘This day / could stand for any of my days, / and if I had to leave / now would be a good time.’ Those lines end his book, and he has earned them.”
About the Author
Peter Nash (1938-2024) was the author of two poetry collections, including Coyote Bush, winner of the first annual Off the Grid Poetry Prize. Nash practiced medicine for more than four decades, including after retirement, when he felt called back to working part-time in rural health clinics. He lived in Northern California on the Lost Coast, one of the longest stretches of undeveloped coastline in the continental United States.
