I am a newcomer to Norbert's works, although I have known about him for a long time. He grew up in my home town. His poems and works always give me a sense that I can visit my roots,even though I live in New England now. His awareness of nature and how it plays a part in our lives, even if just in a glance is very moving. All of his memories of his growing up in southern Indiana bring home to me many memories that I have. He has a keen sense of where he came from and where he is going. I recommend his works to all, even if you have never read poetry before,for I never had to any degree. `

I'm happy to add another title to my growing collection of works by Norbert Krapf. Whether he's describing the colors of a flower, the heat of a summer's day, the noise on the street, or the movement of his emotions as he writes about family and home, I'm always drawn into the images he creates and am further moved by his ability to speak profoundly yet with beautiful simplicity, clarity, and economy. His poems are approachable for all readers and will be enjoyed and savored for their honesty, directness, and, above all, for the life that breathes out of every page.

Norbert Krapf is one of the few contemporary poets whose poetry uses sound and imagery to weave a magic spell around mature, insightful content. His exploration of the relationships of humanity to nature, to heritage, to tradition, to ourselves is but part of his genius. His poetry does what good poetry should always do -- sing. Whether the form is a narrative, like the wonderfully evocative poem "A Union Veteran from Indiana Recalls Visiting with Walt Whitman in a Washington Hospital" or a short poem comprised of couplets, like "Gatsby Country," the form grows from the content. As a long time fan of Norbert Krapf's work, and editor of ELF: Eclectic Literary Forum, I believe every lover of poetry will find this volume of poetry well worth reading.

I received this as a college graduation gift as I was leaving my Southern Indiana home. I have treasured it since. And, it makes a great "coffee table" book.

"With poet David Ignatow you may call Krapf's work 'a book of rural psalms' that celebrates the chain of generations past and still unborn. No doubt, Norbert Krapf is today's strongest poetic voice in search of German heritage," German Life; "Although these poems are deeply rooted in the ...lives of Krapf's German-Catholic ancestors, their ultimate concerns are what Faulkner called the 'old universal truths' of 'love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice,'" Arts Indiana; "With its emphasis on the specifiities of a place and its people, Krapf's poetry had deep affinities with the local color tradition of American literature. But like Kentucky poet Wendell Berry, Krapf's fore is in recognizing the spiritual interaaction between a people and their place," Sycamore Review; "The mix of sunny and dark images places the poet in a Frostian tradition as well as a Whitmanian one; Krapf's poems reverbate with the mystery of human character at the core of his family roots."