Early Settlement and Other Poems

Charles Churchill takes us into the mountains of Porter, Maine where his poetic imaginatioin has long been stirred by the remains of old cellar holes, representing the fall of an agrarian way of life to the working of the Industrial Revolution. Children, viewing the hardships endured by their parents, walked out to the towns, the mills, the social life. When their parents wer not longer able to keep up their homes, the moved in with their children "downtown." The pace and mood of Chruchill's poetry gives voice tot eh story of individual lives marked by the land, the times, the dignity and suffering and convey a sentiment for humanity and for rural New England that few others have captured. Dawn Marion's illustraions add to this rich texture of beauty, ruin, humor, nobility, and depression.

Charles Churchill

Beech River Books

Calvin C. Waxwing

Eva D. Ward

This is a wonderful collection of satirical and whimsical pigs in artwork created since 2003 by D. A. Hammond. 51 full color illustrations. Pigs are like people. People like pigs. People can be like pigs. Pigs like people, sometimes. Sometimes people and pigs just poke fun at each other. The oil pastels of D. A. Hammond are vibrant, rich and colorful. The same can be said about his sense of humor, if one wishes to be kind. Here are some excerpts from the extensive commentary and critical acclaim that Pigs ina Poke has received from noteworthy sources around the world: The use of earthy tones is mixed with an eclectic palette of bright primary colors in a way that reminds us of the Early Masters and the famous paintings that Neanderthal Swine scratched on the floors of the caves in southern France. The primal quality calls forth our primitive instincts while the sublime lifts us out of our daily mire so that, in mirth, we may commune with the angels.. -Sir Charles Swineburne, Pigtoria &amp; Albert Museum, London Once a ham, always a ham... -B. Aiken, STY Magazine, Des Moines Rib shaking, snout snorting...It'll have you rolling on the floor... -Pig Talk Radio From Loudon to Daytona, from Austin to Sturgis, HOG enthusiasts are revving their engines in one loud salute to D. A. Hammond... -hogsnout.com A certain eloquence of manner is required when delivering the punch line: a dead pan gaze, an attitude of indifference to the world's opinion, a feigned accent that shows one belongs to a different breed...and Hammond's quips fly to the mark... -HIGH SOWCIETY, New York

PIGS INA POKE Collection #1

Humor & Entertainment

Hammond, D. A.

Humor

Beauty in Science and Spirit

The awesome beauty of nature lured ancient people to explain the world with myths, illumined by art. The mathematical beauty of modern science emerged from the mystical beauty of these spiritual stories. Today, Einstein's language of mathematics frames the evolution of the beautiful universe. Charles Darwin explained the evolution of "forms most beautiful" by variations and the natural selection law in 1859. Nevertheless, the intelligent design community still doubts Darwin. How could a process having randomness lead to life and even beauty? Dr. Carr shows how randomness coupled with law is creative, as evidenced by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot's recent discovery that fractal geometry permeates nature's beauty, from snowflakes to the branching of plants and lungs. Both fractals and evolution are characterized by the interplay of chance and necessity. This interplay can be extended to science and spirit. The scientific account of the origin of the universe complements that of spiritual stories. Each can be beautiful in its own way, because spiritual and scientific stories have different purposes. Spiritual stories answer "why" and give guidance and motivation for living now and in eternity. Scientific theories explain "how," give a coherent rational account of measurements, and make predictions. Integration of the "how" with the "why" can lead to a beautiful new story that transcends national and cultural differences. Nature's intrinsic beauty can motivate its conservation. "Whether a reader is interested in beauty, in nature, in science, in technology, in religion/spirituality/theology, or in all of them, Paul Carr's exquisitely illustrated volume is bound to provide intellectual enrichment and aesthetic enjoyment." --K. Helmut Reich, Ph. D., Professor, Rutherford University &amp; Senior Research Fellow Emeritus, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Paul H. Carr

"Beyond the mill, across the bridge, old roads meander to the farther hills, and some grow dim, then vanish in the shade of trees..." -from "First Settlement" CHARLES CHURCHILL takes us into the mountains of Porter, Maine, where his poetic imagination has long been stirred by the remains of old cellar holes, representing the fall of the agrarian way of life to the working of the Industrial Revolution. Children, feeling the hardship endured by their parents, walked out to the towns, the mills, the social life. When their parents were no longer able to keep up their homes, they moved in with their children "downtown." The pace and mood of Churchill's poetry gives voice to the story of individual lives marked by the land, the times, the dignity and suffering and convey a sentiment for humanity and for rural New England that few others have captured. Conversational in tone and tenderly perceptive, the poems take the reader to a place grounded in America's early traditions, where Churchill successfully elegizes a world gone but not yet lost to memory. Dawn Marion's illustrations add to this rich texture of beauty, ruin, humor, nobility, and desperation. A fine, strong collection of poetry, written from the heart and rooted deeply in the natural world, the historical New England of his family, and the wonderful tradition of Robert Frost and E.A. Robinson... -Howard Frank Mosher, Author of WAITING FOR TEDDY WILLIAMS, THE TRUE ACCOUNT and STRANGER IN THE KINGDOM. Poems that span the full range of human emotion with pathos and humor... -Duke Southard, Author of A FAVOR RETURNED, AGENT FOR JUSTICE and THE WEEK FROM HEAVEN AND HELL. Beautifully written, evocative, sensitive, an emotionally satisfying identification with our rural past... -Henry S. Maxfield, Author of LEGACY OF A SPY and ANOTHER SPRING.

Rick Whaley was a founder of the Green Party in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He describes how issue-oriented politics have a negative affect on the process of getting a party to come together behind a platform. When individuals or groups come to meetings focused on their own agendas, the result is that power-plays can take place that encourage factions and extreme positions. But the author proposes positive and active approaches to encourage consensus and inclusion. He gives vivid and inspiring examples of facilitation methods that negotiate around the stronger, more demanding voices so that wiser and more reflective voices can also be heard. Whaley advocates for decentralism in the Green party and for respect for core values as a way of establishing sustainable and sensible positions that will bring more people into the tent rather than pushing them out. Progressive consciousness should also respect community cultural schooling, the Family as an institution, value-conservatives, and bio-regional and cultural traditionalism. Most of all, ecology and environmental justice should be maintained as the core value of the party, he argues, with care to preserve the diversity of opinion that surround that center, just as we value diversity in ecosystems. Whaley's message is, in the end, one of hope, healing, courage and strength. Rick Whaley has blended parenting, political activism and writing, and a career in education for more than three decades. He has been a day care teacher, parent, family day care provider, foster parent, and home-schooler. In the Rust Belt layoffs of the early 1980s, Whaley organized in Milwaukee around disinvestment and forced overtime, as well as doing neighborhood organizing and safety patrols. He was an organizer and activist for the boat-landing Witness for Non-Violence in northern Wisconsin and co-authored the award-winning book, Walleye Warriors: The Chippewa Treaty Rights Story.

How Green Is the Green Party?: Stories from the Margins

Rick Whaley

From a daughter's graduation to a young man's funeral, from Louisiana, forlorn after Hurricane Katrina, to the pristine woods and lakes of New Hampshire, where he lives five months of the year, Robert Demaree takes us to the places and events of shared experience, in verse that is ironic, bittersweet, and always accessible. You will say, with Jillian Meyer-Bledsoe, author of "Leaving Newfound" and co-editor of Ghoti Magazine, "I know that place!" "Robert Demaree's poems are resonant, witty, and easy to love. His range of subjects brings life to every page. This is a collection of simplicity and most impressive lucidity." -- Janine Margiotta Robert Demaree was born in Pennsylvania and spent forty-two years as a teacher and administrator in schools in Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana and North Carolina. He is the author of "Lo, Hearts Behold: A History of Greensboro Day School," two collections of poems, articles in educational journals, and more than 250 poems published or accepted by seventy periodicals.

Fathers and Teachers ((Poems))

Literature & Fiction

Robert H. Demaree

Poetry

Walking Sticks (Poems)

Dudley Laufman

Man's sacrilegious infringements on Nature's delicate balance calls down a forgotten Indian curse and releases a raging mountain lion, a catamount, into the North Woods. This creature is not supposed to be here and is not supposed to prey on humans, but two young children and their dog pick up its trail behind an isolated summer camp not far below the Canadian border. The children do not return and a search and rescue party sets out after them, but the rampages of the malevolent, ghostlike cat hinders their efforts and a violent storm sets off a serious fire in the tinder-dry forest. The children manage to survive their first encounter with the stalking catamount because of the heroism of their dog, Virgil, but the rapidly spreading wildfire drives them through a treacherous bog and other dangers, and some of their would-be rescuers become further victims of the mysterious black apparition. Their distraught parents, Ed and Marty Rollins, are part of the search party, but Marty's recent brief affair with a local fish-and-game officer, Rob Schurman, who is acting as their guide, has set off tensions that must be resolved or set aside in order for their efforts to be effective. The catamount is wounded but this only serves to make it more vicious and unpredictable. Shifting winds threaten to endanger towns in the North Country and drive the children, the search parties, and the angry cat to a final confrontation on the edge of Lake Mackapaque.

Catamount: A North Country Thriller

Rick Davidson

Genre Fiction

Sixty year old self-employed architect Tom Derringer has always been a confident, self-assured man. But when he discovers he has prostate cancer his confidence is shaken and he is forced to confront the meaning of his life and the possibility of his death in ways he has never done before. In the the process he must come to understand--and come to terms with--himself, his wife and his son. "Tim Barretto's novel successfully navigates both the private waters of the inner self and the contemporary concrete joys of daily life...Thoughtful yet tough-minded, his book resonates with courage and reflective wisdom yearning for redemptive closure." -Steve Hickoff "Men's search for meaning, exuberance, and joy in their lives--especially in relation to the ones they love and nurture--challenges them mightily, and brings them up regularly against their inmost fears and very human inadequacies. Tim Barretto's haunting first novel invokes both Norman Maclean's literary flintiness and Mary Sarton's poetical deliberativeness as he explores the emotional legacies with which fathers and sons involve one another." -Rick Agran, author of Crow Milk and Pumpkin Shivaree Tim Barretto teaches writing, speaking, and literature at the UNH's Thompson School of Applied Science. He and colleague Kate Hanson co-founded the Community Leadership program to help students interested in becoming activists and community leaders find and develop their voices. His creative work includes short stories and a play about bullying that was performed at several schools in New Hampshire. He has spent most of his life pursuing ways to eliminate child abuse. When he has free time, he loves to spend it outdoors fishing, hiking, or skiing with family and friends. He lives in Dover, NH, with his wife, Mary.

Searching for Joy

Tim Barretto

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Books by Beech River Books

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Beech River Books publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Early Settlement and Other Poems

Calvin C. Waxwing

PIGS INA POKE Collection #1

Beauty in Science and Spirit

Early Settlement and Other Poems

How Green Is the Green Party?: Stories from the Margins

Fathers and Teachers ((Poems))

Walking Sticks (Poems)

Catamount: A North Country Thriller

Searching for Joy