Praise for Hauntings of a Summer Moon

“Hauntings is Mr. King’s second book of free verse poetry. Sunflowers and Zinnias (Texture Press, 2010), his first published work, share similar themes as those poems in Hauntings—in which he conveys depictions of the earth that are like paintings. They are haunting, in that they evoke a longing or obsession for a quiet moment in nature.

In ‘Reflection in Nature,’ he writes:

Sweet odors emerge as prairie grass flowers in birth of color,
Feel the water’s surface unafraid; it is only images displayed,
Distorted first, they vanish at a touch.

But Hauntings is also a book of expressions of love and passion. In ‘Burning Wood,’ Mr. King asked his readers to think more deeply about their own experiences of love and desire.

Does passion devour love at its beginning?
Fire, like love, consumes as it gives,
Near the flame, the body, like the soul,
is divided by heat and bitter cold.

Finally, ‘Haunted Images’ (one of the last poems in the book) casts shadows of doubt that many of us have experienced upon entering an old abandoned house where other footsteps have trod.

The reader wonders, ‘Do I trust my own mortal senses or is there something beyond this life?’

In darkening rooms that reflect my soul,
The shadows from the past do live,
The visitor of the night most feared—
the silence of the dead.

Mr. King’s poem, ‘Haunted Images’ is really a summation of all the poetry in his book.”
                                             —Jessica LeBeau