Minute Men and Women

First there was Edgar Lee Masters and his Spoon River Anthology. Then there was Edwin Arlington Robinson and his Tilbury Portraits. Now comes Anne Waters Green with her Minute Men and Women. Green's love of both genealogy and poetry shines through in this stunning collection of poems written in one of the most demanding forms in the English language. After having spent four years of my own life writing in this form, I can truly appreciate Green's amazingly brilliant wielding of this poetic structure. But even more impressive is her respect and honor and reverence--at times even a gentle irreverence--for the men and women whose lives are illuminated in the four centuries explored within these pages. This is one of the most compelling, entertaining, and aesthetically impressive collections I have read in a long, long time.

Cathy Smith Bowers, Former North Carolina Poet Laureate and author of many collections, including A Book of Minutes



"Sit and tarry, / Spill your story" writes Anne Waters Green as she invokes a distant relation to share his tale of family abandonment and reappearance. In these poems her rich ancestry shares confessions, boast, and anger at the accidents and challenges of life, but what shines through is their resilience, determination, and courage to continue. Green offers these quick portraits in a delightful blend of character admissions and poet's speculation in poems of stark honesty and frequent admiration.

"Fate did not warn / How closely joy and grief can cleave" a sudden widow laments in one of several poems about marriage, remarriage, large families, and loss. The poet's mother "learned so well / that her own views / had value too," a lesson not lost on the author.

Dr. Kenneth Chamlee, Professor Emeritus, Brevard College, author of Absolute Faith and Logic of the Lost



Giving voice to names found in archives and on census rolls, Anne Waters Green has resurrected ghosts, explored human frailty, and captured moments frozen in time, including her own breech birth "to gulp sweet air." Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted, Minute Men and Women will delight readers, especially those interested in history and family dynamics.

Karen Luke Jackson, Ed.D., author of GRIT and The View Ever Changing