Recluse Freedom
by John Leax

In Recluse Freedom, a collection of new poems written from 1990 to 2010, John Leax offers a human history of family, community, and nation in conversation with a spiritual history—imagined, experienced and revealed. Readers who have already discovered Leax will welcome this new book. And, for others, Recluse Freedom provides a fresh and rewarding introduction to this poet of the “still, small voice.” “His best poems to date,” writes reviewer Thom Satterlee in Books & Culture.

As reviewer D. S. Martin writes for Ruminate:

Reading poetry is an exceedingly personal experience, particularly the reading of Recluse Freedom, the fifth poetry collection by John Leax. In these poems, we’re drawn into one man’s personal communion with the natural world — the communion of an avid gardener, hiker, fisherman, birdwatcher, and man of unassuming faith. Leax follows the tradition of such nature-inspired poets as William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, Robert Siegel, and Mary Oliver. Your personal connections with the out-of-doors will in part determine which of Leax’s poems you most closely identify with. Some of your favorite poems may be ones I slip quickly over; and the ones that resonate most deeply with me may not catch you in the same way. Although this is true of all poets, I especially sense it here.

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