The Poetry of Steve McDonald

Praise for Credo

“Credo is an intimate and beautiful collection drawn from one man’s life. But it goes far beyond that to show us the commonality of our lives, rooted in rich physicality, growing in failure and humility and the heart breaking open. Through vivid language and well-chosen images, these poems bring us closer together.”

—Ellen Bass, Like a Beggar

“These are the poems of idea and story, dense with the images of daily life, its tattoos and churches, its children and rain. They follow the pattern of a man’s recovery, his laughter and grief, his landscape and hope, his nostalgia and desire.”
—Joseph Millar, Kingdom

Praise for Golden Fish / Dark Pond

"Steve McDonald’s new collection, Golden Fish / Dark Pond, is a stunning and deeply moving sequence of meditations. Here is a poet who creates—even as he reflects upon—the metaphysics of passage that we each seek, perhaps most often while we move through despair toward some iridescence of faith." --David St. John, The Auroras

In these poems, Steve McDonald gives the reader a keen-eyed observation of dread and hope as they exist side-by-side. His skill at braiding faith—in its multiple variations—with the everyday experiences of life results in a “quick breath” that you’ll hold until you complete this mesmerizing collection. --Lynne Thompson, Start with a Small Guitar

Praise for House of Mirrors

“Steve McDonald reveals the sacred that’s in everything around us. He finds God in a sowbug, in a blue-belly lizard whose eyes are deep as every unanswered question, and in his hands, even starting up a lawn mower is a kind of prayer, a recognition that the grass is long,/your time is short. In the title poem, when the boy steps out of the House of Mirrors, the faces of the people at the carnival waver and shimmer. This is what these poems do—they show us the shimmering world." –Ellen Bass, The Human Line

“Steve McDonald makes the ordinary extraordinary as he examines nature and ourselves in unflinching detail. In House of Mirrors, we move from the wonder of a spider and its intricate web to the machinations of the human heart. The beauty of McDonald’s imagery opens us to his and our own vulnerability and struggles (“mud nests hang . . . like forgotten laundry”) – language that views the natural with reverence. In this book the startling and raw turn into a state of grace. These are elegant poems – moving and redemptive.” –Judith Pacht, Summer Hunger

“I'm drawn to the poems of Steve McDonald, the way they move so easily from the sacred to the profane and back again. Their language is both lyrical and specific. Their subject is the human heart.” –Joseph Millar, Blue Rust

“House of Mirrors is about people: fatherhood, family, strangers and friends, notable for its attention to language and empathy for its subject matter, the human in all their many guises.” –Dorianne Laux, The Book of Men

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GOLDEN FISH / DARK POND 

Winner of Comstock Writers Group 2014 Chapbook Contest

"[Steve McDonald's} skill at braiding faith—in its multiple variations—with the everyday experiences of life results in a “quick breath” that you’ll hold until you complete this mesmerizing collection. --Lynne Thompson, Start with a Small Guitar

Sample poems from Golden Fish / Dark Pond:

Step 1

Resurrection

911

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The Poetry of Steve McDonald

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Praise for House of Mirrors

GOLDEN FISH / DARK POND