Green-Silver and Silent: Poems

Poems of person and place by West Virginia Poet Laureate, Marc Harshman. Marc Harshman knows these people, these places, and he has the wisdom of someone who knows when to be quiet, when to watch, and listen, so that he can come to us and tell these heart-felt stories. These poems earn their keep, weaving together the physical and spiritual worlds in a landscape that can both sustain us and break our hearts. -Jim Daniels, author of Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems

About the Author :
For many years Marc Harshman taught fifth and sixth grades at the Sand Hill School, one of the last of the three-room country schools. Raised in Indiana, he has lived his adult life in West Virginia with his wife, Cheryl Ryan who is an artist, children�s author, and librarian. His daughter, Sarah Jayne, is pursuing graduate studies at The Pratt Institute. The author of three chapbooks of poetry, he is also a well-known writer of children�s picture books. His children's titles have been published in Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Danish, and Swedish. The Storm was a Junior Library Guild selection, a Smithsonian Notable Book for Children, and a Parent's Choice Award recipient. He has also received the WV Arts Commission Fellowship in Poetry and subsequently the Fellowship in Children�s Literature. He holds degrees from Bethany College, Yale University Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh. Short prose works have won awards from Newport Review and Literal Latt�. Anthology publication of poems include Kent State University, the University of Iowa, University of Georgia, and the University of Arizona. He has also served as an instructor for the historic Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, KY. On May 18, 2012 Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced that he has appointed Marc Harshman as the new Poet Laureate for West Virginia in recognition of his work in both poetry and children�s books.

Review :
The poetry of Marc Harshman is deeply anchored in the earth, the elements of light and water, of all life closely observed. Plants and animals and human beings are equally treasured. Harshman�s deep spirituality also permeates his poetry. This new volume by West Virginia�s Poet Laureate is a joy. - Denise Giardina, author of Storming Heaven . . . . Marc Harshman writes a poetry of bonds, bonds between individuals, between families and communities, between the past and present. In his poems the mythic and the folkloric often swirl around the everyday. They are poems of clear-eyed witness and unexpected connections, of relish and humor, and sometimes the macabre, even the uncanny. Harshman celebrates the local and personal as it touches the larger world, in vivid portraits, rituals that define our lives. I admire the authenticity of both the voice and the vision. -Robert Morgan, author of Terroir