Flood Editions, paperback
Publication Date: January 6, 2025
Publisher Marketing: A selection from fifty years of Merrill Gilfillan's lyrical and vivid poetry Merrill Gilfillan's Three Roans in the Shallows, One of Them Blue: Selected Poems draws from more than a dozen volumes since his first book appeared in 1970, concluding with three short "poetic diaries" in the tradition of Japanese haibun. Wistful, joyful, resonant with "Season through place, / Place in season, in place," the hundred various poems—landscapes, epistles, "tunes meant for whistling"—are propelled throughout by affinity, reflection, and requital. I think of you as the tarts come out of the oven—Ohio butternuts from Ohio butternut trees—and last summer's ash seeds rattle in the wind beyond the window: small bat-of-the-eye pleasures of winter. Deep. Distilled.