Publisher's Synopsis
The poems of Arkansas poet John Allen Adams reward close attention and reveal to the reader not only the poet's skill with words but also his humanity, his love for people, and his life-long dedication to opposing war and protecting the earth. If the focus of some of the poems seem grim we need to remember the decades in which they were written, the era of the Cold War, the carnage of the Vietnam War with its daily body counts, and the ever-present threat of mutually assured destruction, MAD, hanging over mankind like the sword of Damocles. Those issues may seem muted today because the Cold War and the war in Vietnam are behind us, but John Allen's concerns have not disappeared. In fact the daily news reveals to us that the challenges we face today are the very ones he confronted in his poems-caring for our small blue planet and controlling man's fratricidal impulses. It is the poet's love for people for nature and the earth, however that shines through the clouds. John Allen Adams was given only seventeen years of mobility in the world-eight adventurous years on the carnival circuit with his mother and dad followed by the happiest nine years of his life with his Aunt Bessie and his many school friends in Arkadelphia. After his neck was broken in a high school football game in 1936 his remaining forty-seven years were spent in beds and wheelchairs. Like the reclusive Emily Dickinson the compass of John Allen's life was restricted, not from reticence on his part, but of necessity. Such limitations were only physical, however, and kept neither poet from discovering the beauty and wonders of the world close at hand while leaving their imaginations free to explore.
