ABOUT JEFF KNORR

Jeff Knorr is originally from northern California (San Leandro). An avid outdoorsman, he grew up camping and backpacking in Yosemite National Park where many of these poems are rooted. currently, he teaches writing and literature at Clackamas Community College, where he also co-edits the Clackamas Literary Review. He resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife and son.

Standing Up to the Day
Jeff Knorr

$12.00
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ISBN: 1-877603-65-1

"Standing Up to the Day conjures those sacred moments when the human and natural worlds converge. Expect illuminating encounters with coyote and deer, jay and heron, meadowgrass and wisteria. In this compelling debut, Jeff Knorr bears witness to those magical occasions when we unburden our human loads and celebrate nature's grace."

—Craig Lesley

"In deceptively simple language (consider the nuances of the title), these brief and quiet poems probe the common dichotomies of our lives—the fractured either/or way we position ourselves in the western world: present/past, song/silence, man/nature, alive/dead, awake/asleep, day/night. At their best, the poems in Standing Up to the Day celebrate those joyous moments when we forget the fracture and feel the wholeness of our lives, and mostly 'it is the small things we feel.' Knorr has an eastern-like knack for observing those small things. These are fine poems—subtle, intelligent, best enjoyed during our quietest hours."

—Gary Thompson

Standing Up To The Day

There is a jay’s nest
deep in the thick of the laurel
hidden like a seed.

The chicks sing
through the morning.
They are the morning.

I laugh
that they have brought me
bare-chested into the rain.
…

Somewhere there is a colt sleeping
at the feet of its mother
in long spring grass.

Somewhere on a river bottom
a stone turns, into another,
into a silent family of stones.

The sun stands up in the day,
slumps at night
hiding behind the shoulder of a mountain.

And I become alive,
move like a dry July wind sneaking
through the branches of pear trees.

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1997-2003
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