Blind Pumper at the Well, Poems from My Eightieth Year

Author: Ralph Salisbury

Publisher: Salt Publishing (2008)

Blind Pumper at the Well, Poems from My Eightieth Year, evokes my "primitive" American Indian childhood and young manhood, and it evokes my awareness of modern life, my experience of war and the experience of others. The book is an affirmation of a peaceful life and a life lived in harmony with Nature. It evokes love, that between men and women and that among all human beings. It evokes my awareness of my 80 years of life and my coming death.

"Ralph Salisbury has established himself over a long and productive career as a voice of sanity in a world riven by war, racism, and despair. His poems teach us, among other important lessons, the constant need for compassion. We are grateful for his new poems in Blind Pumper at the Well."

–John Witte

"Ralph Salisbury’s Blind Pumper at the Well bears witness to human suffering and to the horrors of war. The poems are generous and kind. Salisbury celebrates the beauty inherent in family, the mysteries of loss, the sadness of the human condition, and through scrupulous reflection, arrives whole, wise, and in the moment. Blind Pumper at the Well is a gift."

–Rodger Moody

"Ralph Salisbury’s poems in this latest volume are witness to his genius for words, witness to his reverence for language, and they show his deep and abiding concern for the human loss in wars and the rumors of war. As an artist, Salisbury is at his best here: time and time again the force of his words is framed in sturdy periodical sentences that hit you smack between the eyes with their crescendoing, image-packed truth."

-Jim Barnes