Stephen Anderson

Welcome to the September 2015 Blue Heron Speaks feature! This month, we are very pleased to share the work of poet, Stephen Anderson. Please visit our Blue Heron Speaks page to read 3 sample poems from his new poetry collection, Navigating in the Sun (Finishing Line Press, 2015). While reading Stephen Anderson’s poems, we closely hold the miracle of each memory he shares with us, as if they are our own. Anderson has that rare gift as a poet of showing us the magic of small moments through beautiful imagery and thoughtful details. We, too, are on that swing as a child. We, too, are listening to the cicada serenade. We, too, are contemplating the fate of a colony of yellow jackets. I hope you will linger long and often, while reading these poems, as we welcome the new life that awaits us behind the russet and gold of September.

(Photo credit: Shlomo Godder)

Stephen Anderson is a prize-winning Milwaukee poet whose work has appeared in numerous print and online journals including Southwest Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, New Purlieu Re-view, Free Verse, Verse Wisconsin and Foundling Review. Many of Anderson’s poems have been featured on the Milwaukee NPR-affiliate WUWM Lake Effect Program. He is the author of Montezuma Resurrected And Other Poems (2001) and The Silent Tango of Dreams (2006 chapbook).  Several of his poems appeared in the poetry collection, Portals And Piers (2012). In the summer of 2013, six of his poems formed the text for a chamber music composition entitled, The Privileged Secrets of the Arch, performed by some musicians, including two members of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and an opera singer. Because of a particular set of life experiences, Anderson considers himself a poet with a global perspective rather than a regional poet. His newest poetry collection, Navigating in the Sun, was recently published by Finishing Line Press (2015). Copies can be ordered directly from the poet ($14.49 plus shipping of $2.50).  Contact author for details at: stephen.anderson724@gmail.com

Navigating in the Sun (Finishing Line Press, 2015)