Poems from the Hilltop

By Parker Blyth

 

I asked A.I. for a short bio on Parker Blyth. This is what it fabricated:

Parker Blyth's debut poetry collection, "Threads in the Field," was published in 2023. Blyth grew up in rural Vermont and their poetry reflects their deep connection to the natural world.

Many of the poems in "Threads in the Field" focus on different seasons in Vermont and closely observe the changes that occur on Blyth's family farm over the course of a year. Vivid descriptions of foliage, snowstorms, harvesting crops, and sunshine create a pastoral mood throughout the collection. There are also poems that capture moments between Blyth and their relatives while working outdoors.

While celebrating the beauty of nature, Blyth's poetry doesn't shy away from some of the challenges of rural living. Several poems address themes like isolation, poverty, and the strain of physical labor. However, an overall tone of gratitude for simple pleasures permeates the collection.

Critics have praised Blyth for their ability to distill profound insights about life through spare descriptions and direct language inspired by the landscape surrounding their childhood home. "Threads in the Field" announced Blyth as a vital new agrarian voice in American poetry with their moving celebration of rural New England life. The collection marks the arrival of an observant poet closely tuned into nature's rhythms.

(PS. I have never set foot in Vermont.)

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Parker Blyth
• Release date: Jan 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9780645517767

Parker Blyth

About the Author. John Beamish (also writing as Parker Blyth) is a self-published author who resides in Flaxton on Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland and lives and paints at the Hilltop Gallery. The first novel was Addiction Concerto.  I write under Hamish Beamish and have begun the next novel based on love and Art theft in the last great war (with time travel thrown in for seasoning). I ama member of the Flaxton Writers Group. I paint, play guitar, write poetry, and approach peace of mind by the day, by gardening, feeding the chickens, and writing. My literary influences are varied. From Balzac to Bukowski. I love Stendhal and Proust, Lee Child (James Grant) Dostoyevsky, Nabokov and Hunter S Thompson, cartoons and newspapers, Rory Sutherland and YouTube. Thank You for your time and Kind Regards Parker Blyth/ Hamish BEAMISH/John beamish The man with too many personalities

Book preview

Poems from the Hilltop

Parker Blyth

Published by Parker Blyth, 2024.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

POEMS FROM THE HILLTOP

First edition. January 12, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 Parker Blyth.

ISBN: 978-0645517767

Written by Parker Blyth.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Poems from the Hilltop

Further Reading: Everything Money Can Buy

About the Author

Poems from the Hilltop

The fat man plays his accordion slowly,

as tourists snap the money shots.

Local villagers are too busy these days

Hustling the punters around the clock.

Where once there were no locks or cops,

there are cars and busses and tacky gift shops

with plastic cards and the bourgeois pox

and the accordion player’s beckoning box,

and a couple of coins that someone has dropped

as he plays a sad refrain.

He’ll probably play it again. 

Grey clouds have torn apart out over the ocean

A fresh morning seeps in through a rent in the sky.

Elsewhere a volcano