Böcker av Stephen Benz

The poems in The Ghost Owl Says Go Now focus on place, specifically the vast American landscape from California to Key West and points in between. Guided by the wandering spirit of Bash¿, some of the travel poems in this collection are wistful; others reflect on harsh realities experienced under the spell of wanderlust. Along the way, there are encounters with a variety of people-neighbors, relatives, strangers-that might be described as instances of synchronicity: encounters that seemingly offer significance beyond the random. Still other poems take their cues from culturalmanifestations of Americana: music, artwork, literature, film. In this collection of poems, Stephen Benz continues his probing explorations into the topographies of Americana.

A wild ride on the madcap streets of Guatemala City. A twilight walk through old Havana with a Cuban mailman. A canoe trip along the Florida coast in search of a missing grave. An impromptu communion with one of the twentieth century's forgotten heroes. These are some of the adventures Stephen Benz describes in this witty, insightful, and evocative collection of travel essays.Benz, the author of Guatemalan Journey and Green Dreams, takes readers to remote and exotic locales, introducing unusual characters and recounting little known historical anecdotes. Along the way, he reflects on the meaning of the atom bomb, describes the hardships of daily life in the former Soviet Union, and tracks down the ghosts of the infamous Donner Party.Originally published in newspapers and magazines such as the Miami Herald and the Washington Post, these essays eloquently inform and entertain both the armchair traveler and the general interest reader.