The Whiskey Tree

Collection Overview:

The Broken Spine presents The Whiskey Tree, a profound anthology that embarks on a poetic journey into the untamed heart of nature. Curated by Editor-in-Chief Alan Parry, this collection captures the raw beauty and unbridled force of the natural world. The anthology features a diverse array of voices, each contributing to a rich tapestry that weaves together the many facets of nature's wildness.

Featured Poets:

Among the notable contributors, Anne Walsh Donnelly's A North-Mayo Blessing paints a vivid picture of love and memory intertwined with the natural landscape. Jordan Rafferty's Doghouse evokes the stark beauty of a deserted landscape, while David Butler's Cutting the Turf delves into the rhythms of nature and human interaction. Sue Finch, in Desert Antlers, beautifully captures a moment of poignant hesitation in a vast desert, and Karen Pierce Gonzalez's Olmec Crocodile: Cipactli offers a mythic exploration of nature's primal forces.

Themes and Imagery:

The poems in The Whiskey Tree range from the serene to the tumultuous, reflecting the multifaceted character of nature itself. From the haunting quietude of moonlit shores to the frenetic energy of crashing waves, each poem contributes to an overarching narrative that honors the wildness of nature. Imagery of the sea, deserts, and verdant landscapes abound, offering readers a kaleidoscopic view of the natural world.

Vision and Impact:

Alan Parry's vision for this collection was to document the untamed and rugged aspects of nature, not just in their beauty but also in their raw, sometimes daunting power. The Whiskey Tree is more than a poetry collection; it's a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the natural world, inviting readers to step into a realm where the wild reigns supreme.

Invitation to Readers:

We invite you to immerse yourself in this exquisite collection, where each poem is a window into the heart of the wild. Let The Whiskey Tree take you on a journey through landscapes, exploring the profound connection between humanity and the natural world. This anthology is a testament to The Broken Spine's commitment to celebrating the beauty, power, and diversity of nature through the art of poetry.

Advance Praise:

'This compelling, essential anthology maps not only the Anthropocene landscape - the world fighting back against the destructive influence of humankind - but equally importantly, the interior landscape of human thought and human emotion, rich with its own beauty, its own wildernesses. These are poems with a raw power that demands our attention. They remind us we can never be truly whole until we acknowledge the untamed landscape of the imagination within ourselves.'

- John Glenday, author of The Golden Mean'Nature poetry that avoids the obvious and demands to be explored in depth.'

- Henry Normal, author of The Fire Hills

'Kudos to The Broken Spine for coalescing this new thematic anthology, its accumulative reset, mining and upending the pastoral tradition of landscape poetry. Each poem builds on the next, to produce new visionary territory where body/self/word are both inside and outside of nature, a wrestling with and overturning of the elements. Gritty, explosive, heartbreaking poems distil the human condition, expanding upon our relationships to emotion/environment, whether of scenes in park edges, at highway shoulders, in the cartographies of night streets and memory, in ravaged forests, or hallucinations of dying oceans. This is a soul-sourced magic book -- stark, beautiful, hopeful and groundbreaking!'

- Robert Frede Kenter, author of Audacity of Form