New From Spartan Press

Abraham Smith is one of my favorite living poets keeping the art form alive. He stokes the fires of imagination and his persistence keeps the cinders of inspiration smoldering. It is a joy to read his work and a thrill to hear him read it in person.
—Margo Price

The mists that hover over a meadow first thing in the morning do not disappear; rather they sublime into the day or, as Thoreau once put it, they "conform to the fashions of eternity." In One Warm Morning, Abraham Smith likewise hovers gently over his words as they sublime, effortlessly it seems, into an eternity of free access and inviolable intimacy. Along the way, the music they make is the most companionable that I know.
—Donald Revell

Out of the dark hole of grief comes a startling, at times surreal, lyricism.
—Karl Kempton

The speaker asks us to let go of the guardrails of reason, of the safety of the everydayness, to dive without knowing how it will turn out.
—Michelle Patton

These poems are breathtaking and beautiful, intimate and powerful!
—James Tyner

William Trowbridge is one of America’s best and wittiest poets: funny, tender, wry, compassionate, full of insight and rueful understanding. Trowbridge tells it like it was, and like it is: occasionally grim, but replete with humor.
~ Charles Harper Webb

Sharp, funny, and unflinching, William Trowbridge writes with clear-eyed wit and deep compassion. A wise, wry, and humane collection, Trowbridge remains one of America’s most engaging and generous poetic voices.
~Elizabeth Powell

Maintenance, grapples with the Sisyphean tasks of upkeep and repair against the inevitable vicissitudes of entropy, decay, complacency, and despair. With trademark wit, Trowbridge peels back the histories we collectively seem doomed to repeat—familial, national, global... confirming the enduring power of art in the midst of absurdity.
~ Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh

With a backbeat of determination, Denton offers up love songs to working mothers, trade unions and artists, capturing the essence of skirting poverty among rust and depression. Fighting fire and hatred with words, these poems tender sparks during dark times.
~Jonie McIntire, Poet Laureate of Lucas County, Ohio

Poet-as-prophet! Worker-as-witness! Denton stands at the confluence of sweat and stanza where calloused hands and unflinching verse carve truth into the fabric of working-class. From organizing to resisting to refusing to let silence smother solidarity -- each line is a ledger of real lives.
~Jody Russell, Proud UAW Member

The words of Jim D. Deuchars have long contained a strong sense of musicality and playfulness. On the page, they are nothing short of visual theater. like the twist and turns of a river, these are wild words for uncertain times.”
~ John Dorsey

You don’t have to like classical music or know anything about music theory or give a crap about 18th or 19th century music theorists to enjoy this book. Books are for reading, and for losing yourself in, and for driving you to that place of quiet contemplation B-flat major. And that’s what this is for. All of it.
~ Holly Day

The Vesper Room's preponderance of great poems is dizzying, lyrics simultaneously hard-boiled and lush, hard-earned and beautiful. These are goddamn great poems. I loved this collection.
~Ed Simon, editor of The Pittsburgh Review of Books and Rust Belt Magazine

Like jukebox music spilling from a doorway, this collection widens to fill the street. These poems appear offhand, but they go deep.
~Richard St. John

Pure-hearted, mournful, playful, serious—these poems run the gamut as both testament and elegy to a great woman gone.”
~Kevin Rabas, Kansas Poet Laureate

Words for Coffee is more than just an exploration of grief, it is a lighthouse for anyone who has lost a loved one.
~Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Americana writ large! Deftly delivered, elegantly crafted, cementing Gerson at the forefront of contemporary American poets. Radiantly encapsulating the travails of immigrants amid xenophobia, women confronting misogyny, veterans grappling with PTSD, and individuals facing anxiety, infirmity, and mortality. Luminous language from this Poet Laureate of the Everyday, of the American 99.99%, elevates one’s spirits, quiets tension, and provides hope regarding humanity’s fate.
—Dr. Robert C. Cottrell, The Heyday of Willie, Duke, and Mickey: New York City Baseball’s Golden Age Amid Integration

Captures the myriad facets of human identity: love and heartbreak, the dichotomy between inclusion and exclusion, the hope of youth and experience of age, the bloom of health and the withering of the infirm.
—Stacy Harken, JD, Information Architect/Technical Writer, Garmin Industries

Modern and sophisticated without sacrificing the human. A collection for our times.
—Collin Thomas

The kind of poetry James Wright referred to as “the poetry of a grown man,” embracing adversities and shocking realities without idealizations or anger but with the distance of an observer who has seen a lot.
—Ximena Gómez, Conversations about Water/Conversaciones sobre Agua

A one-eyed man working up the courage to talk to a waitress, a one-armed butcher in the French countryside, an artist who stalks prey and paints masterpieces with blood, Christiansen conjures “sharp encounters” leaving only the bones on your plate and these living ghosts in your head.
—Scott Ferry, Sapphires on the Graves

Christiansen gets his Whitman on and sings a song of himself, his heroes, and those he’s met along the way. An eclectic mix for the most eclectic of times.
—Chad Parenteau, Associate Editor Oddball Magazine and Stone Soup Poetry Author of Can’t Republic: Erasures and Blackouts

Vojta’s poetry lives between garden and wild river, between honesty and tenderness, between litany and lyricism, wrapping the reader in the awareness that our orderly universe still allows breathing space for surprise and wonder.
—Amy Wright Vollmar, Follow

Love Song to Gravity’s sensuous, rich imagery is a needed refuge, an invitation to enter the simpler reliability of an ordered world where there’s is order in chaos.
—Valerie A Szarek, Offerings

Brian writes in the language of a poet who has found his voice: gentle, introspective, strong. Ranging from deep self-reflection to poignant environmental pieces, from light verse to a chance encounter with a Quechua girl, to a soup kitchen feeding the homeless.
—Armando Garcia-Davila, Scarecrow’s Memories

Using every incantation at her disposal, Johnson presents a harrowing journey through the underworld where the reader meets The Grim Reaper, the Ferryman, assorted ghosts and minions, and of course, Lucifer himself. Surprisingly, Joan of Arc rounds out the register, balancing and breaking the tension with sardonic and often biting wit.
—Heidi Hermanson, Waking to the Dream and Cocktails with God

Written on the fly, dictated into his phone in real time while traveling, Gierke finds the aesthetic center of each song and composer. I highly recommend this collection to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how music shapes our perceptions as we travel.
—Rick Christiansen, Bone Fragments (Spartan Press 2024)

These are musings of an open-road samurai, armed with unleaded gasoline and a well-curated playlist.
—Timothy Tarkelly, The You We Know and Love

Written to the beats of his eclectic playlist, the beat goes on: not some a ‘long strange trip’, but an inspired collection!
—Sharon SingingMoon, Random Seed