Poems by Dan Albergotti
New Poets of America Series
"Dan Albergotti’s first book, The Boatloads, is filled with the spirit of mystery. It is a startling achievement that begins in wonder and ends in awe."
--Edward Hirsch
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of The Boatloads is its overt references to church and Christianity. Albergotti’s references are not mere proselytizing though. In fact, the first poem in the book – Vestibule – tells the story of the author’s teenage experience making love to his girlfriend in a university chapel, saying, “Lord of this other world, let me recall that night./Let me again hear how our whispered exclamations/near the end seemed like rising hymnal rhythm/and let me feel how those forgotten words came/from somewhere else and meant something.”
This is certainly not the stuff of Sunday sermons. But Albergotti's poems are in no way anti-religion either.
Instead, Albergotti manages to depict the struggles, joys, confusion, and striving of a young man coming to terms with his religious upbringing and making decisions about how that training will play out in his adult life. In his eyes, the path to salvation is crooked and meandering, but never broken.
The Mystery of the Great Blue Heron
The poet tries to make the heron a god,
but the heron does not care. The heron
wades along the shore, a dark body
absorbing light, patience stopping time.
The poet makes sounds like prayer,
but the heron is merely annoyed, stepping
into the air and pulling with broad wings.
The poet carefully records a sacred text,
but the heron has found a hidden pool
among the small trees and stands there
all day, staring coldly into the water,
far from the songs, from the blood,
from all the voices that beg for mercy.
Available editions:
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Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-934414-03-3
Price: $16.00
Publishing Date: April 2008
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BOA Editions, Ltd. would like to thank the following generous Publishing Partners for their support of The Boatloads:
Anonymous (2)
Alan & Nancy Cameros
Gwen & Gary Conners
Peter & Sue Durant
Pete & Bev French
Judy & Dane Gordon
Kip & Debby Hale
Tom & Illona Hansen
Stephen Healey, in honor of Myrna MacPhail
Robin & Peter Hursh
Willy & Bob Hursh
X. J. & Dorothy M. Kennedy
Jack & Gail Langerak
Rosemary & Lewis Lloyd
Peter & Phyllis Makuck
Robert & Francie Marx
Boo Poulin
Steven O. Russell & Phyllis Rifkin-Russell
Jane Moress Schuster
Vicki & Richard Schwartz
Joseph Shields & Patti Hall
Barbara Valente & Thom Ward
Patricia D. Ward-Baker
Dan & Nan Westervelt
Pat & Mike Wilder
Glenn & Helen William
Steve & Erica Yunghans
