These Unblessed Days

By Greg Huteson

Huteson's quiet, questing voice erases perceived distinctions between place and time as within his spare, formal structures we encounter local apocalypses haunting liminal spaces-dusk, dawn, the watches of the night, shorelines, ferries, alleys, unoccupied rooms, micro-interactions (human and other), the memory of/desire for shared meals, gaps between city buildings where the sky breaks through. While many of these poems are set in and around Taiwan, they glorify varieties of universal breakage, tarnish, and decay, each presided over by "flocks of middling angels, smudged guardians of no specific rank." The tone is especially intriguing-a kind of queasy affection and radiant grief that serves to subtly set us off-balance.
-Claire Bateman, author of Scape and Wonders of the Invisible World (forthcoming)

Greg Huteson is a poet always sensitive to the spiritual life while keeping his feet firmly on the ground. Casual readers will delight in his eye for detail; experienced readers will soon realize that they have encountered a true artist with a talent for the subtlest turns of phrase. Take a look at "Break of Day," "A Morning Word," "Gaps," or "Homestead" and you'll see what I mean. Huteson's poems teach us how to see and how to listen.
-William Thompson, editor of Alabama Literary Review

A Texan and longtime missionary in Taiwan, Greg Huteson regards his world with generosity and awe. These quietly powerful poems move back and forth through memory-from abandoned Texas houses, to latter-day evocations of Tang Dynasty tradition, a fable of kitchenware come to life, and the pleasure of eating dragon fruit, the "reminder of a greeny world/of fields marked and marred/with clambering, fragile stems." Huteson's faith is central. With playful skepticism, he imagines guardian angels on watch or sketches the elderly eccentric who kindles a courtyard apocalypse. Yet his search for meaning is tireless, as in the haunting pantoum that reminds us, "A cup of water for the one in hell/is the gift of a one-eyed man./It's better, by far, to enter into Life." This is a wise and transcendent debut.
-Ned Balbo, author of The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639801529
• ISBN13: 9781639801527
• Release Date: October 2022
• Publisher: Kelsay Books
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"