Additional Information:

Format: 6 x 9
Release Date: June 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-57869-031-2
eISBN: 978-1-57869-034-3
LCCN: 2020903375

Booksellers and Libraries: Order Here.

EXCERPT

Safe as Lightning

Long before guilt was invented
this stream managed rocks without it—

never a threat or wheedle—just shifted them
when strength was gathered. Changes

from every storm were there for my
exploration. That’s how its small

riffles and dark pools became
such freedom for me. Neither worms

I pierced, nor speckled fish I hooked
cried out in accusation. In turn

they claimed me, taught me to fin in place
beneath a dark green overhang of rock.

Oh! How the heart is taught to bargain;
search the hard ground of obedience

and its deceptions. I would rather
sink my feet in black loamy banks

where a holy beaver pond spills
its disconcerting welcome through the trees.

There is no promise I will be safe
if I relinquish. It is a place where

for a few years brook trout fatten
and the silt accumulates, until

some torrent tears the sticks apart and I
come exploring next June’s fertile mud.

Nothing I can promise spares
the children. My grandson shudders

at colliding arguments of thunder
but will not be denied the lightning.

SYNOPSIS

Scudder H. Parker’s poetry debut is a compilation of early experience, midlife discovery, and later-life thankfulness. Safe as Lightning is pervaded by sadness about the current direction of our human experiment, and hope for what it might be for us to become respectful citizens living in a thriving and diverse world.  A lifetime of observation, experience, and discovery of the amazing richness of the inner, human, and natural worlds; a total delight in the freedom and disciplines of language; a search for justice; and the practice of humility, have all inspired the poems contained within.

PRAISE

“In one of the myriad lovely and cogent poems in Safe as Lightning, Scudder Parker writes:

I used to understand so many things. 
Now everything surprises me;
anger shows up on my doorstep

like an orphan.
Sadness is a thread of light 
I try to pick off the carpet.

There is nothing
I am qualified to rescue.
I am learning to be patient.

The verse is deft, the observation meticulous, as it is throughout this wonderful collection. To the emotions cataloged in this passage, I would add the whole range of human responses, for the poet encounters and limns each and all. And, though the final stanza above reflects his commendable humility, I take issue with it: Scudder Parker is a conservator: he ‘rescues’ so much in Safe as Lightning that the reader is challenged to take it all in. He or she must learn to be patient too.”

—Sydney Lea, Vermont Poet Laureate 2011-2015 and author of Here

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“Scudder Parker writes musically with ‘no irritable reaching’ toward quotidian beauty. With Buddha-like patience and attention toward such immense particulars as the peonies, corms, and gladiolas in his garden, he testifies to what he calls ‘some shy part of  me' [that] is always sitting…in sun…on this cold porch…no wisdom, no plan; full of psalms, no notion who I’m singing to.’ In poem after poem, Parker divines by receiving, with the result of apprehending the cosmos in the smallest things. ‘The poem of the world reveals itself / like a doe’s hoof tapping ice till she can drink,’ he opines. Such lyrical perspicacity pervades his poems with true antinomies that surprise and enlighten as personal revelations that resonate with gentle, universal appeal.”

-Chard deNiord, Vermont Poet Laureate 2015-2019 and author of In My Unknowing

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“Anyone reading Scudder’s poems knows how special it feels to be home in Vermont. One can read and re-read them and feel the comfort of home.” 

—U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy

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“Here is a voice accessible, yet elegant. There is no pretense, no agenda.  Fully aware of past and future, of dangers, regrets and loss, these poems baptize the now, the exquisite temporary, with time and attention, and cause the reader to cherish their own life in fresh ways.  In this decade of violence and division, these poems believe in life, in people doing what they can to care for the earth and each other. Listening to Scudder Parker’s voice, full of tenderness, humor and humility, ‘There is nothing/ I am qualified to rescue.’ I felt rescued.  Reading Safe as Lightning I felt hopeful, encouraged, and, for a time, safe.”

—Diane Swan, author of The Other Wish  

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“Scudder Parker’s poems have a Vermont flavor.  He describes the world he lives in and adds his personal philosophy. The poems allow us to see nature in a different light,  and reflect on the meaning of life.”

—Governor Madeleine M. Kunin, author of Coming of Age, My Journey to the Eighties

_______________________

“People who think of Scudder Parker as a former minister, Vermont legislator, and political activist who, ‘by the way,’ writes poetry will have to think again after reading his beautiful debut collection, Safe as Lightning.  This is the work of a poet who deserves the name, a poet of broad range and deep sensibility.  Among his many subjects and themes, one of the most prominent is that of gratitude, ‘a different eye that opens— / unnerving in its great permissions.’   It was certainly the emotion I felt after reading his book.”

 —Garret Keizer, author of The World Pushes Back

CRITICS’ REVIEWS

I just finished a deep read of Scudder Parker’s new collection of poetry, Safe As Lightning. In this quiet but profound collection Parker shows a true poet’s intuitive sense of the equilibrium between the music of words and their visual evocations. I found myself reading aloud many of the poems to fully appreciate his wonderful poise. Parker’s ability to observe and to find meaning in even the most quotidian of nature’s work is exceptional and beautiful.

I loved this quiet collection and know I will find myself returning to it often in my remaining years.

—Bill Schubart, author of Lila & Theron

_______________________

This debut collection of poetry offers an amble through life and nature. “There is nothing tidy about this volume,” writes Parker in his opening letter to readers. Yet even though the poems are not ordered by “history, subject matter, literary form, or style,” there is a satisfying sense of cohesion to the collection. The author approaches a broad range of subjects, from nature and religion to families and food—he even writes his own obituary—but the poems remain united by Parker’s sedately measured narrative voice….Parker’s sense of peace and determination to savor life are contagious….an enchanting collection. Tenderly observant and rewarding poetry.

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review), read the full review here.

In The News

Athens Messenger, July 13, 2021: Athens native and Poet Laureate wins poetry prize.

The Montpelier Bridge, July 14, 2020: Scudder Parker: A Poet Connected to People and the Earth, an interview with George Longenecker, president of the Poetry Society of Vermont.

The Times Argus, July 4, 2020: ‘Safe as Lightning’: Scudder Parker shares a reverence for Vermont life, a review by Marjorie Ryerson.

VT Digger, June 25, 2020: Tom Slayton: Scudder Parker’s new book of poems.

Seven Days, September 9, 2020: Quick Lit Book Review: 'Safe as Lighting,' by Scudder Parker.

MEET SCUDDER