Dust on the Sill

Robert Nordstrom's splendid new poetry collection, Dust on the Sill, is the perfect book to read on a "wind shorn / gin & tonic afternoon," when one is ready to contemplate life and its "color, like breath, on loan." In poems often wistful, always generous, Nordstrom coaxes profound meaning from spare and elegant lines as he grapples with big questions by engaging what seems small-bread and soup shared by a long-married couple, children boarding a school bus after summer, "the maple toss[ing] its leafy arms / in lament or praise." Dust on the Sill is a primer on how, across a long life consciously, gratefully lived, a person might learn to "greet[...] what rises / rather than chasing / what sets." Nordstrom's poems are beautiful hymns to living and loving; readers cannot help but raise their voice to join in.

-Francesca Bell, Marin County Poet Laureate, author of What Small Sound

I love this collection of wise and witty poems. They are filled with story and like all good stories, they are peppered with characters-from siblings to Super Moons to seniors having sex on Saturdays. There are school bus drivers and dogs (all poetry books should include dogs). As with any good story, Nordstrom anchors his poetry with a sense of place. Readers are moved from Ohio to Wisconsin to Oregon. There is a gentleness here, a questioning of the why, the way things are. And always the inexorable passage of time-"... how / time traps and releases, / terrorizes and comforts, / simultaneously, / like light..."

-Karla Huston, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017-18, author of Ripple, Scar, and Story

Robert Nordstrom's latest poetry collection sparkles with lively similes and surprising metaphors. His poems are, at various times, humorous, serious, and philosophical; but always thought provoking. With topics as varied as love, marriage, dogs, darts, and bed sizes, Nordstrom writes in everyday language that highlights the surprises in the everyday lives we lead. There is something for everyone in Nordstrom's poetry. I highly recommend this book.

-Ed Werstein, author of Communique: Poems from the Headlines