Welcome to the JUNE 2017 edition of Blue Heron Speaks! We are delighted to shine a spotlight on the work of poet, Tom Montag, author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013 (MWPH Books, 2014), This Wrecked World (Bitterzoet Press, 2016), The Miles No One Wants (Otata’s Bookshelf, 2016), and The Big Book of Ben Zen (MWPH Books, 2003), among others. There is a spartan beauty to Tom Montag’s poetry, which offers us a window, a door, and a pathway to understanding the world. Through the lens of nature as philosopher and the guidance of a deep inner knowing, we enter into a vast space, where we can openly seek answers. Tom Montag generously provides us with a quiet pause to reflect. After all, we cannot rush life’s wisdom.

Visit the Blue Heron Speaks page of our site to read 3 sample poems by Tom Montag, and to learn more about his books.

(photo by Geri Burk)

Tom Montag, most recently the author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013 (MWPH Books, 2014), This Wrecked World (Bitterzoet Press, 2016), and The Miles No One Wants (Otata’s Bookshelf, 2016), has been a featured poet at Atticus Review, Contemporary American Voices, Houseboat, and Basil O’Flaherty Review, and has received Pushcart Prize nominations from Provo Canyon Review, Blue Heron Review, and The Lake. Montag’s poem “Lecturing My Daughter in Her First Fall Rain” was incorporated into the design of Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Convention Center; read the poem and see a photo HERE. Peter Stephens has given thorough attention to Montag’s The Big Book of Ben Zen and In This Place at Slow Reads. Your One Phone Call did a lengthy interview with Montag. Montag blogs as The Middlewesterner. With David Graham, he is currently editing an anthology of poetry about small town America.  Montag’s favorite comment about his work comes from a Turkish writer who said: “Tom, you are my favorite Chinese poet.”