Love and Other Collisions
“Joseph Mills is a poet who understands that Love’s great nemesis isn’t Hate but Time. Time and again, the poems in Love and Other Collisions explore the inherent pain created when Love and Time meet. This book stands as a chronicle of the speaker’s growth from a hopeful youth to a father carving out the best life he can for his own children to a man who is a helpless witness to his mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease. In the words of one poem, Mills “show[s] how you [can] make something of your life if only you [can] stand enough punishment over the years.” Love and Other Collisions is at once ambitious, unflinching, and tender—It is definitely a must-read.”
— Shaindel Beers, author of A Brief History of Time
“Joseph Mills writes Romantic poems in the classic sense: poems about people we can see around us in words which bring the poems brightly to life, striking us like they were our own memories. These poems about growing up, parenthood, being a son, and working as a teacher are pleasures to pass through.”
— Matt Mason, author of What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know
Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers
"To Joe Mills a glass of wine reveals a little of 'the almost infinite risk in being who we are.' Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers is, then, a collection of revelations, truths to be found in and about wine. Witty, mordant, melancholy, funny, these bright poems fix and illumine the many moods we may encounter in a bottle of happy red. I shall recommend this volume most heartedly, saying, 'Here, I think this / will help make things a little better.'"
— Fred Chappell, author of Family Gathering
"This is a big release. Joe Mills’ hearty poetry, like the wine that inspires it, is the mirror of the mind. From first sip to finish, nothing compares to Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers."
— John P. O'Grady, author of Grave Goods and Pilgrims to the Wild
“Joe Mills takes the chestnut of wine as a provider of truth and gives us something wonderfully original. These poems are smart without being stuffy, humorous but never coy, and full of startlingly sharp details that took my breath away. Mills' observations about love, intimacy, and the smallest details of domestic life make this collection full of nuance, longing, and, yes, truth. “
— Lindsey Crittenden, author of The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray
“In Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers, Joe Mills dips in and out of the wine barrel with poems running the vineyard from sober to passed out on the tasting room floor, making for a fun read. In his poem "The Good Nights,’ Mills writes "On the good nights/when the bottle's empty/we always want/ just a little more..." and that's how I felt when I'd finished the last poem."
— Matt Mason, author of What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know
“Reading Joe Mills’s poetry I feel like I'm on a tour with a guide who knows where he's going, introducing me to ways of seeing something familiar in an entirely new way that leaves me feeling better than when I started.” — Stephanie Sarver, author of Uneven Land: Nature and Agriculture in American Writing
"'It's like listening to music by moonlight,' Somerset Maugham's character, Isabel, said in The Razor's Edge, speaking about Joseph Mills' poetry. Oh, wait; those words were actually about zubrovka, an exotic vodka. But, then, Maugham had never read Mills' poetry."
Somewhere During the Spin Cycle
Joseph Mills is a teacher, writer, and poet whose work has been featured in numerous journals and magazines. In his first full-length book of poetry, he skillfully infuses mundane daily happenings with tenderness and power. "Talking to a Miner in the Columbine Café About the Memory of Bone" is a perfect example of the power he draws out of obscure moments in time. I quote the first verse:
He says what bothers him most
is having to wear the watch on his right.
He keeps trying his left,
cinching the leather
strap deep into the skin
but it keeps slipping off….
"As if Motion was Action" employs metaphors to draw readers along on a harrowing journey:
Drive long enough
and mile markers skitter
across the road
like rabid shadows,
the "winding curves"
snake
from their signs,
the pavement itself
shrugs, stretches, twists
until you're convinced
you're riding
the back of a living thing.
"Moonrise Bay Winery" evokes the weariness and worry experienced by a vintner. The excerpt quoted here, however, shares a small moment of joy:
You walk the green rows, pulling off clusters
of fruit until juice covers your arms
attracting clouds of butterflies. Here is
your harvest: these clapping wings of color,
these sweet handfuls of temporary grace.
"When My Students Ask Why They Need Poetry" is the teacher-poet's answer, as honestly as he
can give it:
….These poems won't
get them a job or a raise. They may never
feel a connection, need, or desire,
but they may also find in the waiting
room, at the head of the banquet table,
along the road, or by the grave, a poem
will say for them what they cannot…..
These are poems borne of the poet's heart and spirit as he gracefully spins fleeting moments into memories. Mills experiences life deep into the marrow and shares his visions with readers. The striking cover art, "Sudestada" by Liliana Italiano, entices the eye and prepares readers for the profound poetry inside the book. If you enjoy poetry, Mills' work is highly recommended.
— Midwest Book Review, reviewed by Laurel Johnson
