Shell Dreams

Description

The poems in Shell Dreams will usher the reader into a unique experience of Florida culture and some more and less exotic aspects of life on Sanibel Island.  Composed over five years when the author and his wife spent Februarys on the island, the poems are, by turns, descriptive, reflective, satiric, and just plain fun.  They focus on the flora, the fauna, the weather, the people, and the ambience of a state some call “God’s waiting room,” and a Gulf Coast island that epitomizes the retirement lifestyle.  Sanibel is also an island rich in natural beauty and occasions for meditative awe, all of which these poems evoke.

“In his stunning collection, Shell Dreams, Ed Block’s poems crystalize and clarify the delights and insights of the senses absorbed in the moving worlds we inhabit—nature’s wonders, human hurts, and flights and fits of beauty and laughter. The act of paying attention is an important form of love. In Shell Dreams, Block’s poetry pays attention to language and to the importance and nuance of place, gifting us the means “to look…to lose yourself…dream,” while each carefully crafted poem feels like “a cool hand across your back, inviting you to stay.”

—Austin M. Reece, PhD, Director of Survivor Empowerment at Lotus Legal Clinic, and author, and editor of Untold Stories Magazine