A Language without Words by Michael Raattama Tripp
A Language without Words is a book of poetry inspired by one person’s life. The insights from moments in forests and on farms, on waters of lakes and rivers, through depths of sorrow and the pursuit of fly-fishing touch emotions common to humankind
$13.95
A LANGUAGE WITHOUT WORDS is a book of uncommon prayer, a summons that palpates one man’s heart in an evening breeze along the lakeshore, at dawn’s light on the riffle of a thawing trout stream, beside the frayed throbbing of a string of prayer flags or in the cozy sarcophagus of a torn wool coat pulled on or reburied in the hall closet. Mike Tripp breaks a trail through snow-crusted woods and across plowed soil of pasts we did not know we shared until the instant we followed. We breathe in and out, exerting prevailing joy and loss. Days slip behind the horizon and resume in bluebird, nighthawks, waxwings and solitaire. The river in the canyon flows as casual and as much a casualty as the currents in our organs and limbs.
A beautiful collection of poems to immerse yourself in like cool waters, a journey to places of beauty and times of sorrow
Even the title of this wonderful collection of short poems resonates for me. I too have known great loss and reflection. I too have sought understanding and healing in the natural world. The poet returns again and again to the inevitable thrust of life forward as he writes in January Rains.
These brief words speak of the western life, the steady connection to land and creatures. The poet demonstrates trust and hope in the unfolding drama of the place we inhabit.
And yet the terrible truth of our mortal predicament infuses his short and exacting verses in Early Spring….
Tripp rides us across geography from coastal places, dry desert locales and deep river canyons to a beloved cabin on Lake Scandi. On the Road to Scandi he gets down to his endless work assignment.
Michael Tripp has a gift for inserting succinct and telling lines.
What a marvelous way of summing up the ongoing sparring with mortality. This mood of encounter continues in Torn Coat.
The poet questions who will see him, who knows him. The implication being “who will remember us.”
The repeated incantation in Voices spoke clearly of the pain of loss, the bewilderment of traveling on.
The book’s poems touch on prayer flags, fluttering, tattered and “written in ancient script,” the desperation of prayer. Closing his collection with poems dedicated to his late mother and father, the poet pens the line “Bouquets not sent.”
One of the final poems is an intimate conversation with the one lost. In John Day Canyon Mike Tripp shares the bounty of his musings and reflections.
“Life’s journey cannot fill your absence
Give us guidance
Travel well
These brief words speak of the western life, the steady connection to land and creatures. The poet demonstrates trust and hope in the unfolding drama of the place we inhabit.
And yet the terrible truth of our mortal predicament infuses his short and exacting verses in Early Spring….
Tripp rides us across geography from coastal places, dry desert locales and deep river canyons to a beloved cabin on Lake Scandi. On the Road to Scandi he gets down to his endless work assignment.
Michael Tripp has a gift for inserting succinct and telling lines.
What a marvelous way of summing up the ongoing sparring with mortality. This mood of encounter continues in Torn Coat.
The poet questions who will see him, who knows him. The implication being “who will remember us.”
The repeated incantation in Voices spoke clearly of the pain of loss, the bewilderment of traveling on.
The book’s poems touch on prayer flags, fluttering, tattered and “written in ancient script,” the desperation of prayer. Closing his collection with poems dedicated to his late mother and father, the poet pens the line “Bouquets not sent.”
One of the final poems is an intimate conversation with the one lost. In John Day Canyon Mike Tripp shares the bounty of his musings and reflections.
“Life’s journey cannot fill your absence
Give us guidance
Travel well
Editions:
2020 Paperback 60 pages ISBN: 978-1-937849-92-4
$13.95