What We Can See

This is a 90 page book of poetry by Chera Van Falcon Burg, a psychologist, published poet, and an award-winning filmmaker and environmental activist. She co-wrote and produced the film, Call Of Life, about the drivers of the current mass extinction crisis and its cultural and psychological underpinnings. The poet and scholar Estella Lauter said this first book of poetry by Van Falcon Burg that "This is a beautiful book of poems-full of captivating images, astute insights into human psychology, compelling observations of the natural world and wisdom about our place in it. In five sections, the book moves from the author's early life, when nature was a respite from family trauma, through processes of learning to be of the Earth, not just on it." In his analysis of the book, the Chicago poet, jazz musician, and literary journal publisher Al DeGenova said that "Van Falcon Burg offers poetic answers true to her experience and vision, which share wisdom deeply felt and powerfully written."Published by Four Windows Press, who has also published books by the American Book Award winner Terence Winch, the AWP Novel of the Year winner James Janko, and the poet Ethel Mortenson Davis, this is the latest in a series of volumes designed to champion voices that deserve to find a place on the American literary stage. This is accessible poetry for almost any reader, but it goes beyond most books of poetry as a result of Van Falcon Burg's sometimes innovative use of language and the power of her expression. She is after understandings drawn from her life experience in these poems but also after explorations that make sense out of a world with increasing environmental and social challenges. This is an extraordinary first book of poetry by an extraordinary poet and activist.