Starlight’s Genesis: An Anthology of the Starlight Gallery

—Sam Magavern, poet and author of Primo Levi’s Universe: a Writer’s Journey

“This book does what poetry is supposed to do: transport us into new worlds; worlds
that prize dream and beauty and the self; worlds that weep and play and shrink from
neither pain nor joy; adventure worlds and worlds of living well. These poems illuminate
an affirmation difficultly achieved. A pride well earned.”

—Dave Lewitzky, Poet

A deeply heart-felt, lyrical homage to the four elements: earth, air, fire, water. An almost zen-like spiritual feeling imbues and inhabits these poems by a talented group of Buffalo poets. The great silence of nature is turned into words that charm and touch the mind of
the heart.

—Wade Stevenson author of A Testament To Love & Other Losses

I am in the world. / It is wild, a lifelong promise, writes Ricky Gene Hogan in “Stars and Clouds.” If ever there were an argument for public support of arts education, it would be this wild, elemental book. The poetry in Starlight’s Genesis explores the air, earth, water, and fire of what it means to be human. These poets challenge us all to look at them and their words with fresh eyes, and then to look at ourselves. Janet Rose Harrison lets us know, in her poem “Line,” that We will be the end of the past / Coming into play. This anthology is the present, promised and delivered.

—Sherry Robbins, author of Or, The Whale

“Expressing ourselves is a fundamental cultural (maybe even biological) imperative. We dress, act, walk, and talk in ways that demonstrate to the world who we are, and what we feel and believe. For people who have difficulty expressing themselves, whether the cause is biological or not, being given the opportunity to do so is exhilarating, and can be part of healing, recovery, or just living a happier life. Starlight’s collection of work in Genesis is an extraordinary compilation of these expressions. These are acts of joy, for even when they aren’t joyful in content, they are joyful in the act itself – in its release to a visible expression. People have a chance to see inside, to feel what someone feels, and perhaps understand and find new ways to relate. Each of these works opens connections to people who often feel disconnected; they offer chances to see ourselves within those who often seem different from us. In that sense, for those who created these, and you who absorb them, they can be the genesis of a newly shared joy.”

—Paul T. Hogan, author of Points of Departures: Poems, (NY: White Pine Press, 2008), and vice president of the John R. Oishei Foundation in Buffalo, NY.