Poems by Zachary Chartkoff, Sam Mills, Robert Rentschler, Ruelaine Stokes

Not so much a review as a conveyance for your consideration. I know Mr. Mills, and have published or reposted one of his earlier free verses here in the form of a guest special interest writing, aka Donut Hole: The Editorial Department. Sam and I worked in the same editing and writing group for the company once known as Electronic Data Systems—then after the General Motors severance, simply EDS—owned and run by the self-styled brilliant entrepreneur and captain of industry, Ross Perot. This was, for me, in the late 1980s. Sam predated me a couple of years at the corporate communications beach head.

And I’m a huge fan of both Sam the Man and Sam the Poet. He writes as I like to imagine the world, deftly and with a eye sensitive to the living-breathing, common part of us all. After we left EDS, we kept in touch, I dropping in, from time to time, to a convenient establishment on his end of town serving adult beverages. In fact, I believe he made available this booklet to me for a reduced price or in return for buying him a drink. These were the days before the convenience and print-on-demand of Createspace came to independent publishing… and I recall how our barmaid, who had become a good friend of Sam’s through several sessions of good-natured banter, oohed and ahhed when he bestowed a copy on her. Continue reading →