Readers of Stephen Wiley's first volume of poetry will find themselves at home as they leaf through the pages of his new book. As in Hero Island, reverence of nature and nature's ways illuminate every line of Mockingbird Come Home.

This is a world in which the patient, loving construction of a cabinet and the discovery of a new galaxy are events equally worthy of celebration. The song of a mockingbird is appreciated as much as a Puccini aria, a cherry tree in full bloom as beautiful as a Botticelli and the death of a moth mimes the nobility of a soldier who gives his life for his comrades.

It is a world where people still pursue the humble, simple chores and duties of old, sharing the "red, round sweet and ripe" tomatoes grown by one's own hand or milking 22 cows before sun-up.

Wiley's poetic voice is consistent because it speaks to the "final four" of the poet's art: nature, time, love and death.

The new book is divided into two sections. The first, "Where We Live," paints miniature portraits of three regions of the country where the poet has spent most of his long (more than three-quarters of a century), rich and varied life: New Jersey, Vermont and Florida. In the second, "Who We Are," Wiley tells of people he has known and loved - and of those who have passed on. The eight poems in the final pages speak of life's final departure. None does so more touchingly than "Going," evoking his father's final minutes.

At the bedside of my father at ninety-four
mother and brother talking
in the hospital room doorway….

I knew Father wouldn't die
I bent over his bed though
and we embraced with a kiss
as he was going.
Life gives death its meaning and death returns the compliment.

The colorless, still and silent ones
lie under their bleak gray stones
for the sake of us still here
we of color motion and sound.

Praise for Wiley's Poems

Mockingbird Come Home is Wiley's second book of poetry. It follows Hero Island, which was warmly received by critics when it was published in 2005. It was called a book of "unusual merit" by Kirkus Discoveries and labeled a "great addition to American modern literature" by BookReview Club.

Wiley's poetry was discovered by Dr. Neal Storrs, publisher and editor of Oasis, a literary journal, who first published Wiley's work and then persuaded him to produce a book. He also is editor of this new collection.

Wiley's work, Storrs says, finds "a mystical harmony uniting all things great and small."



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