portraits of red and gray: memoir poems

Review\n"James C. Morehead's Portraits of Red and Gray may be composed of "memoir poems," but don't let that fool you into thinking there's any less art here. This is a kind of Bildungsroman—an education not necessarily of spirit, here, but of sight. "It was a field, not a lawn," a young speaker corrects himself. In another poem, a boy and his father "connect the dots of ancient figures" in the night sky. In a long sequence detailing a school trip to Russia, the new landscape unsettles any previous way of looking: "i cannot look i cannot look away." Morehead replays his adolescence not for sentiment, it seems, but for precision. It's a precision that can teach anyone to look a little closer." - Corey Van Landingham, Poet and Author of "Love Letter to Who Owns the Heavens"\n"In 'portraits of red and gray' by James C. Morehead we travel with him through boyhood and manhood: camping with his dad, working in his high school years far away from home every summer, his time as a teen in Russia traveling during spring break with his school. The vulnerability and humanity expressed in these poems is moving. Morehead writes, '...I had to wait / for my tears to dry before dropping in quarters to call home.'" - Angie Trudell Vasquez, Author and Madison, WI Poet Laureate\n"In this second collection of poems, James Morehead's imagery is vivid, spare and elemental, and it is consistently chosen and arranged to achieve intensely poetic effects. The rhythmic control is impeccable. The centerpiece of this collection, a long series of poems that chronicle a trip through the former Soviet Union, is a fast moving, impressionistic feast of imagery. Sunglasses, denim shirts, vodka debauches, dollars, rubles, steely-eyed Russian authorities ever on the lookout for forbidden deals - all of it is transparent and engaging." - Carmine Di Biase, Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus - Jacksonville State University\n"James Morehead's collection, 'portraits of red and gray' resonates with the adventurer in all of us, magnifying the beauty and dynamism of the human condition while navigating life's most fragile and poignant moments." - Jessica Sabo, poet and author of "A Body of Impulse"\nTake an unforgettable journey from Cold War USSR to Savery, Wyoming, from the mountains of Tuscany to the peak of Yosemite's Half Dome, from the Canadian wilderness to the beaches of Normandy. James Morehead's (Poet Laureate - Dublin, California) acclaimed collection is built around a series of memoir poems that takes readers into pre-perestroika Soviet Union through the eyes of a teenager, from Moscow to Tbilisi to Leningrad (and many stops in-between). The striking cover, designed by Zoe Norvell, is based on a 1982 lithograph by Igor Prilutsky.\nFrom the Back Cover\nIn this collection of memoir poems, James C. Morehead (Poet Laureate of Dublin, California) brings universal themes to life through journeys to the USSR and the mountains of Tuscany, the concert halls in San Francisco and a tiny town in Wyoming, the cables of Yosemite's Half Dome and the beaches of Normandy.
Praise for James C. Morehead's debut collection, canvas: poems
"These are poems to be savored, re-read, kept handy for those times when only poetry will do." - W. J. T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, English and Art History, University of Chicago
"Beauty breathes in these debut poems: from the elegant limano to strong silences. Poet James Morehead is a world traveler who treats readers to excursions that harken back to his alluring title poem, canvas, and other portraits." - Regina Harris Baiocchi, poet and author of Indigo Sound, Urban Haiku, and Blues Haiku
"To read canvas is to be transported to a world infused with meaning and memory." - Morgan Liphart, poet and author of Barefoot and Running