Singing the Forge, Poems by G.H. Mosson

Singing the Forge explores the singing of what’s shaped us and what we’ve shaped for ourselves.  Through poems at times personal, plus vignettes from men and women of the past two centuries in the book’s middle section, these poems offer mirrors of becomings.  Readers encounter diversity.  Across free verse, meter, and poems of organic form, you might just see yourself.

Sample Poems by G.H. Mosson

“Through a series of beautiful meditative lyrics, Mosson links childhood and adulthood, journey and reckoning, memory and wonder.  A humane and earnest poet, Mosson is as much attuned to ‘songless streets of Baltimore’ as to ‘trees’ unnamed relation to the world.’  He captures this attunement with carefully measured language and impressive precision.  Many poems are probing observations of places and people, rendered in verbal landscapes revealing his debt to visual artists.  Hans Hofman, Philip Guston, Henry Moore are three invoked in this volume. The poems in Singing the Forge create a philosophy of life centered around the idea of harmony with the universe - even if harmony’s always at the verge of disintegration. They should be paid attention to and cherished for this reason.”—Piotr Gwiazda, Professor of English, Univ. of Pittsburgh

“Mosson’s poems are magical, memorable and meticulous, speaking to the powerful pull of locales and weathers and loves, yet get pinned to the memories of a reader with lines like these, spoken by a physician in his old age: ‘The nursing home is out there like a shark/ that has swallowed so many of my patients one by one.’  Give a copy to someone you love but be sure to keep one for yourself.”—Clarinda Harris, Professor Emeritus, Towson University