Body and Soul: Poems and Songs Poetry
with illustrations by Dawn Marion
This book is dedicated to an endearing friend, mentor, and excellent poet, Pat Parnell. Pat became an active member of the poetry community soon after she moved to New Hampshire in 1983. I met Pat when I was just wading into poetry and prose in the early nineties. We met with other seacoast poets at her house in Stratham as part of the Seacoast Poetry Group. We would also meet at Harvey Shepard’s house in Exeter and workshop poems. She was nothing less than a role model, a champion for the spoken word. She always used a critical eye in terms of meter, imagery and poetic craft. She looked over this collection twice in the course of two years, and I remain humbled by her attention and encouragement.
Pat’s son Larry recently told me a story that speaks to her worldly view of art. When she was teaching a writing class in Virginia, Larry said his mom would borrow a record from his record collection and then take it into the writing class and say, “Now class, this is poetry.” Art has many connections and music and poetry are closely linked. The identification of a bridge between these two art forms comes from a reliable source, Pat Parnell.
“Poet and songwriter Bob Moore offers his creative writing in eloquent phrases and melodious rhymes that flow off the tongue with a natural rhythm. Best read aloud and enjoyed for their strong connection to nature, his poetry collection is full of feeling and in observance of the world he writes about. His musical talent transcends into his poetry, especially in sonnets. A true joy to feel the rhythm overtake the reader, like water flowing gently over rocks and pebbles in a stream.”
Click here to go to Amazon.com to buy this book on-line—Julie A. Dickson, New Hampshire poet and writer: Untumbled Gem (Gold Fish Press, 2016), Bullied into Silence (Piscataqua Press, 2014). Her work also appears in issues of The Avocet Nature Poetry Journal, Five Willows Literary Review, Poetry Quarterly, The Harvard Press and Poet’s Touchstone.
$12.95 / paperback /92 pages / 6 in. (w) by 9 in. (h)
Beech River Books / 2018 / ISBN 978-1-930149-10-6.
Robert Moore has been writing songs and poetry since the early 1990s. He released a collection of songs in 1991 entitled On a Mission (Little Rabbit Music). He self-published a collection of poems in 1997 entitled A Bridge with a View. In 2009, he released a second collection of poems entitled Unexpected Colors, published by Beech River Books. In 2013, he released a guitar instrumental collection of songs also entitled A Bridge with a View. Moore has had poems published in The Compass Rose, The Poet’s Touchstone, The Lyric, Prey Tell–An Anthology of Poems about Birds of Prey, The 2008 Poet’s Guide to New Hampshire, The Avocet, and other journals.
Moore attends coffeehouses and open-mikes in the New Hampshire Seacoast and performs at regional coffeehouses throughout the state. He is host of the First Friday Coffeehouse held each first Friday of the month at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter (FUUSE). Recently, he’s been playing Baroque and Spanish music arranged for alto recorder and classical guitar with musician friend Penny Vernet. He also performs with musician friend, Lisa Reynolds, who is a vocalist and plays flute. By day, Moore teaches science at Pelham High School in Pelham, New Hampshire. He lives with his lovely wife, Patricia, and their three Papillons: Roi, Romeo, and Ringo.
