Ruth Holzer

Gyroscope Press is proud to present Living in Laconia, by Ruth Holzer.

Copies of Living in Laconia are available in both paperback and Kindle format on Amazon

Praise for Living in Laconia

In his Figures of Thought, our late poet laureate Howard Nemerov paraphrases Mark Twain: “The difference between the right word and the exactly right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” In Living in Laconia, Ruth Holzer startles us with thirty pages of lightning, each exquisite poem a dazzling, memorable strike.

—Sander Zulauf, professor emeritus and editor emeritus, Journal of New Jersey Poets

I have always admired Holzer’s poetry. It is lyrical and carefully tailored, replete with unexpected imagery and, in this collection, it takes on the human condition from the inscription over the 16th-century doorway through the parade of human failings to the inevitable end.

Holzer explores the cruelties we inflict on others, be it the Holocaust, a conflagration in Mogadishu, or the ambitions of the late Joe McCarthy. These are short poems with a lot to ponder: how did we get to this point and how do we get out? There is so much promise in the shy smile, the young girl “reading and chewing bread.” Read this book again because these poems are packed with such unexpected turns, it will be time well spent.

—Nancy Scott, author of A Little Excitement, Ah, Men and The Owl Prince

White Nights
by Ruth Holzer

In heat and lassitude
we slept the day away
while nothing special
kept on happening.

When cool twilight came, 
we’d descend to the old streets
we loved without limit
to find our wandering friends 

and set off once more, joining
those magicians and comedians,
fierce with indulgence till daybreak,
we were young, we were entitled.

Ruth Holzer is the author of seven chapbooks, most recently Among the Missing (Kelsay Books), and Home and Away (dancing girl press). Her poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Blue Unicorn, Gyroscope Review, Faultline, Southern Poetry Review, Earth’s Daughters, and Plainsongs, among other journals and anthologies. Her Japanese-form short poems have also been widely published. A multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, among her awards are the Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of Virginia and the Tanka Splendor Award.