As Glaciers Move: Selected Poems and Prose Presenting a Progression of Perceptions

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As Glaciers Move, through poetry and prose, explores how a person's life experiences and observations may affect his or her perceptions of the world. This exploration (with one of the first poems written by the author) begins in 1975 and proceeds through five decades, including topics such as birth, childhood, personal growth, war, nature, depression, religion, marriage, anger and pain. How the author perceives the world at each stage in his life is not only expressed in the poems and prose but also by the subtle or not so subtle change in topics (experiences and observations).

The author presents this book in its entirety as a metaphor: as glaciers shape majestic mountain peaks and wondrous valleys, forcesinfluential persons, significant junctures and life-altering eventsthat we encounter in our lives shape the way we act and think, affecting the way we see people, events and society.

As Glaciers Move could be the authors memoir, although unorthodox and metaphorical: the poems and prose are in chronological order from 1975 to 2017, and the books premise is the progression of perceptions. However, since most of the poems have several layers of meaning (that is, more than one interpretation), they may speak to the reader of his or her own life experiences. This book is laid out in three parts and does not necessarily show that the author matures (or becomes wiser) as he goes through life; instead, it presents how his perceptions of the world change as experiences and observations accumulate. In "Part One," the poems and prose are from the mid-70s to the late-80s as the author goes from being a teenager (just then noticing his surroundings and political and societal events) to a being a young adult (struggling or dealing with adult responsibilities). In Part Two, the authors focus shifts to introspection, reminiscence and metaphysics. With Part Three, the topics shift again (to pain, anger and especially acceptance, for example) as he enters the fifth decade of his life facing one illness after another with courage and a determination to ignore or overcome them and just enjoy life!

Author Bio

Joseph Whitson has been a carpenter, machinist, stay-at-home dad, college instructor, research scientist and business owner. He began writing poetry long before his first career and has continued beyond his last one, a period, so far, of 42 years, capturing experiences and observations along the way in his poems, a collection as diverse as his life. A few of Joseph's earliest poems, for example, reflect the ravages of war from his perspective, "the comforts of my parent's home in Germany," as he read about the Cambodian genocide and Khmer Rouge in the Stars and Stripes in 1975. Many of his latest poems contemplate the meaning of life and the imminence of death. Other poems explore depression, religion, nature, and marriage. In addition to expanding his career options, Joseph's educational pursuits enriched him in ways that gave him many different opportunities and unique perspectives that come to life in his poems. He earned an Associate of Arts in English, a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences (with concentrations in Microbiology and Molecular Biology) and a Master of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology. Joseph's hobbies are also prevalent throughout his poetry. For example, when he was younger, his outdoor activities included alpine climbing, backpacking, and whitewater kayaking, and he used those explorations of the physical world metaphorically to explore topics entirely unrelated to the physical world in many of his poems. His hobbies now are less dangerous, such as gardening and amateur astronomy. However, even in his most recent poems, there is a sense of adventure. Joseph lives with his wife of 38 years and their two cats in California. He is a loving husband, father, and grandfather.