Rust in August

Writer and journalist Greg Shaw brings us his first collection of poems just in time for his 60th birthday. Shaw''s poetry is built on the memory of sadness and humor, despair and hope. Places-an airplane seat, an interstate highway, a cold urban street, an enveloping forest, a warm bed-stir the poetic senses. The trajectory of these places may begin with grief or awe, but the narrative progresses upward, toward humor and hope.

Nature and technology are often the inspiration. Shaw''s influences can be found in fellow Oklahomans Ron Padgett and Joy Harjo and the poetry of Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Billy Collins.