Title: If You Choose To Come
Author: Karen Luke Jackson
Genre: Poetry
Book Blurb:
If you choose to read this stunning collection of poems—and you absolutely should—you’ll be immersed in images of the natural world so vivid and fresh that you’ll feel like you are experiencing nature’s beauty and mystery for the first time. But these poems are populated not only by snakes, bears, goats, birds, and mountains, but also by human nature—our “loves and betrayals,” our joy and regret, our gratitude and envy.
Karen Luke Jackson reveres nature (even a rattlesnake is “a shared sacrament”) and she knows human nature all too well (“grief blinds me to the bee”). The interplay between the two is at the heart of these wise and inviting poems. -- Eric Nelson, author of Horse Not Zebra
Excerpt:
If You Choose To Come celebrates the place where Karen Luke Jackson lives: the Garden Hamlet at Highland Lake, a cluster of cottages circling a goat pasture in Flat Rock, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a stone’s throw to Connemara, the home where Carl Sandburg spent his last years. The poems, written before and after the author’s heart surgery during the pandemic, are narrative and lyrical. They explore conversations among neighbors, interactions with strangers, and the quiet time in nature which contributed to her healing. With a sense of humor and humility, the author paints with words a world that appears magical at times, but she does not turn away from the harsh reality of personal, national, even weather-related storms. If living in such a storied place is a gift to Jackson, her poetry is a gift to readers. Like a favorite picnic spot, these poems will invite people to return again and again.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Redhawk Publications - https://redhawkpublications.com/If-You-Choose-to-Come-p577961287
What’s your favorite thing about autumn:
The spectacular color show that the leaves put on in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their honeyed golds, shimmering oranges, and burgundy reds set the landscape aglow and is a sight to behold.
What inspired you to write this story:
The desire to see the world with new eyes following heart surgery, to witness the simple joys that each day has to offer– peacocks strutting and oak trees shading picnic tables, goats wandering and streams flowing, even a neighbor on his back porch strumming a guitar. I wanted to share the view of a kinder world, one that awaits us each morning if we choose.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon gift card
Open internationally.
Runs September 1 – 30
Drawing will be held on October 2.
Author Biography:
Karen Luke Jackson, winner of the Rash Poetry Award and the Sidney Lanier Poetry Contest, draws upon family lore, contemplative practices, and nature for inspiration. Her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, One, Susurrus, Salvation South, and Friends Journal, among others. Karen has also authored three poetry collections: GRIT (2020), chronicling her sister's adventures as an award-winning clown; The View Ever Changing (2021), exploring the lifelong pull of one's homeplace and family ties; and If You Choose To Come (2023) paying homage to the healing beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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