Blue Rock

After appearing widely as selections in literary magazines around the world, the 80 love poems in this series now stand for the first time complete. Just listen and sway to their blues and rock. Perhaps even admire their diamond. It's passion, after all, and sometimes betrayal. Frequently, they play out in two voices in different keys that ignite in the rocky night or distill in the blue morning.As a synonym for diamond, “blue rock,” promises marriage and an engagement ring. The phrase also evokes music, spanning both the blues and hard-driving rock. “Blue rock” also holds an element of fire, as in anthracite, or “hard coal,” as well as a fiery pounding, as happens with a ritual hammer-stone. Like the process of forming diamonds itself, these 80 love poems compress passion and betrayal, with results resembling fossilized ferns in bedrock as well as the protracted metamorphosis into crystalline jewels or flames.