Seasons: Moments
poems by
John Maynard
~110 pages, $17 (+ shipping)
Projected Release Date: April 2027
The Advance Sale Discount price on this book is $10. For those who prefer to pay by check, the discount price is $15/book (which includes shipping & sales tax) and should be sent to: Main Street Rag, 12180 Skyview Drive, Edinboro, PA 16412. Both advance sale prices will expire once the book is sent to press.
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John Maynard is Professor Emeritus at NYU. He’s published five non-fiction books, three with Harvard and Cambridge. Seasons: Moments is his fifth book of poetry after Armando and Maisie; What’s It Like To Be Old?; Being in Time and Change; and Political Poems—all out in 2025 and 2026. A Dog in Central Park will appear in 2027. He won the Harvard Press Wilson Prize, a Guggenheim, an NEH, and Marquis Lifetime Award. He was a semifinalist in the Terry Cox Prize, the Washington Prize, and the Word Work’s open contest. He won Chrysalis BREW Awards: Excellent Narrative Poetry, Seal of Excellence, and Reader’s Choice Award. He won the Literary Titan Poetry and Gold Book Poetry Awards.
This collection is a moving contribution to the record of human thinking about planetary process, its relation to the sun, and its effects on the organisms that exist in time. Chronicling the subtle changes that mark the uneven passage of the seasons and our human response to them, these intimate, witty, and closely observed poems demonstrate the rich opportunities and benefits that endure in the ancient and modern practice of seasonal writing. ~Juliet Fleming
John Maynard’s impressionistic poetry vivifies Darwin’s notion of the struggle for existence and genetic survival. His theme is persistent life through changing seasons. The verse reflects the subject matter: no stasis but metamorphosis. Hidden forces and energies in cyclical nature are enlivened by a keen eye attentive to sounds, smells, sights, and textures. Smoothly advancing well-metered lines, colloquial, playful, and philosophical, are focused on natural elements and human feelings. What is usual becomes surprising. ~Gregory F. Tague, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of English and Interdisciplinary Studies, St. Francis College and editor of the online journal Literary Veganism
The Moment
The grass grows in dark rows.
Fast.
Nature exults
Like a mad sorcerer.
Everything sprouts and spreads.
The moment is entirely propitious.
Suspension
Spring begins
Earth thaws
Night comes
Freeze returns
Sun shines
Life begins
Again the thought of spring
Wait continues
Life
Suspends.
Whole Earth Day
It was spring
But cold like winter.
There’d been a little sun
At dawn. It disappeared
Behind a dank mist rising
Right across its rays.
Who knows? It might rain,
Or snow, before the day
Was done.
Met an old guy
Cleaning up the park,
Old, but not so old
As I, but he’d spent
More time out in the air.
Nasty week, he said
But better coming up. Good
Next week, all next week.
Then cold again, I said.
This is a planet, he said,
We’re all on it. We
Have to work with the planet.
It goes round. How could I
Not agree? If it’s a planet,
He said, there must be
A plan. Give it time.
If the weather holds back
You have to work with the time.
Nobody was happy.
It had been a very cold week.
First Day of Spring
The right thing to say about the sun
This first day of spring
Is that it is attenuated.
These wispy clouds dim it down
And turn the bright force
Of the coming warm days
Into a mere winter smile.
We’ll have to wait
Until its full face
Breaks out another day.
Did you expect precious spring
Would come easy?
