Books
The Grace of Gazing Inward: Poems in Response to the Art of Alice Carpenter
Dos Madres Press, 2024
56 p.
Purchase Here
Dos Madres Press, 2024
56 p.
Purchase Here
"The Grace of Gazing Inward... echoes with the power of Zen koans."
— Steve Abbott, author of A Language the Image Speaks:
Poems in Response to Visual Art
“Given the choice, how would you enter the space,” asks poet Chuck Salmons in his transcendent collection of ekphrastic poetry The Grace of Gazing Inward. Each poem is a skillful blend of observation, reverence, wonder and whispers, tight with insights that linger. The art is the words, the words are the art, at some point one easily loses track of which may have come first. Salmons has a gift for meter and turning a poem in adroitly ingenious directions, a poet who looks beyond the frame to consider what might exist “out by the hard edge of the world.” This book is one to sit with, contemplate, savor.
— Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ohio Poet Laureate, Author of Dirt Songs
Poet Chuck Salmons has an internal divining rod which draws him to ekphrasis... In this new collection, Salmons probes into what lingers in Alice Carpenter’s shadows with a sense of wonder and meditation, the kind of slow and deep looking that traverses both the interior and exterior. From memories of the teachings from his pious Baptist grandparents to an uncle slaughtering a hen for a country meal, Salmons summons the personal into the ekphrastic. He also braids so many lyrical phrases to imagine the mystical flow of place that Carpenter’s monotypes suggest: “skin of violin notes,” “currency of starlight,” “silvery stillness and moonglow glaze,” “the shudder and thaw of a world in green.” The visual abstraction of many of Carpenter’s pieces doesn’t deter Salmons one bit from crafting the presence of evocative specifics. As one of his poems expresses it—for this poet, “What space to enter comes easily...”
— Rikki Santer, 2023 Ohio Poet of the Year, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me
— Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ohio Poet Laureate, Author of Dirt Songs
Poet Chuck Salmons has an internal divining rod which draws him to ekphrasis... In this new collection, Salmons probes into what lingers in Alice Carpenter’s shadows with a sense of wonder and meditation, the kind of slow and deep looking that traverses both the interior and exterior. From memories of the teachings from his pious Baptist grandparents to an uncle slaughtering a hen for a country meal, Salmons summons the personal into the ekphrastic. He also braids so many lyrical phrases to imagine the mystical flow of place that Carpenter’s monotypes suggest: “skin of violin notes,” “currency of starlight,” “silvery stillness and moonglow glaze,” “the shudder and thaw of a world in green.” The visual abstraction of many of Carpenter’s pieces doesn’t deter Salmons one bit from crafting the presence of evocative specifics. As one of his poems expresses it—for this poet, “What space to enter comes easily...”
— Rikki Santer, 2023 Ohio Poet of the Year, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me
Patch Job
NightBallet Press, 2017
24 p.
NightBallet Press, 2017
24 p.
“In poems both wistful and realistic, Patch Job reveals a poet comfortable with science as well as soul. Chuck Salmons invites us to walk with him and embrace the wisdom of the natural world, the joy and pathos of memory, and a series of brisk metaphors that discover the infinite in the mundane. You'll enjoy this stroll that takes in family patriarchs, flirting teenagers, Indiana Jones, and the multiple worlds in a grain of sand.”
— Steve Abbott, author of Why Not Be Here Now?, Kicking Mileposts in the Video Age, and A Green Line Between Green Fields
“Chuck Salmons’ poems are a homage to the men who shaped him, the machinists, mechanics and carpenters, who taught him how to use spackle, to toss horseshoes, and to do a day's work, even when he knew that his ‘job was not to be like my father.’ These poems trace a young man's growth from GI Joe and baseball cards, to social conscience and the dignity of manhood. Salmons is casual in the telling, and often humorous, which makes these poems memorable beyond their words.”
— Cathy Essinger, author of A Desk in the Elephant House, My Dog Does Not Read Plato, and What I Know about Innocence
— Steve Abbott, author of Why Not Be Here Now?, Kicking Mileposts in the Video Age, and A Green Line Between Green Fields
“Chuck Salmons’ poems are a homage to the men who shaped him, the machinists, mechanics and carpenters, who taught him how to use spackle, to toss horseshoes, and to do a day's work, even when he knew that his ‘job was not to be like my father.’ These poems trace a young man's growth from GI Joe and baseball cards, to social conscience and the dignity of manhood. Salmons is casual in the telling, and often humorous, which makes these poems memorable beyond their words.”
— Cathy Essinger, author of A Desk in the Elephant House, My Dog Does Not Read Plato, and What I Know about Innocence
Stargazer Suite
11thour Press, 2016
24 p.
11thour Press, 2016
24 p.
“Stargazer Suite is a guided tour through the cosmos. Our guide knows the craft of poetry, and with it he takes us on a wild and exciting ride. From the inchworm to the outer galaxies, Chuck Salmons observes and offers insights, puns, and images that surprise and delight. They come from various realms, among them science, nature, movies, family experiences, and love. Together they suggest a life lived deeply and honestly, an inspiring story of a human being gradually becoming aware of his place in the universe.”
— David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the DC Metro
— David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the DC Metro
Poems, Talks & Readings Online
- Sheila-Na-Gig Online - Summer 2024 Issue, two poems
- Evening Street Review - Issue #37, Spring 2023, five poems
- Sheila-Na-Gig Online - Spring 2023 Issue, one poem
- Shot Glass Journal - Issue #36, three poems
- Five Poems: Chuck Salmons, on Alice Carpenter – The Ekphrastic Review
- “Genesis: A Fib” – The Fib Review
- “Sanibel Stoop” – Illinois State Poetry Society
- Shot Glass Journal - Issue #36, three poems
- "Merlot" and "Absolution" - #SpeakUp Against Gender Violence Reading, February 6, 2019 (YouTube)
Anthologies
- Appleseeds Or, How We Got Here – Sacred Fools Press, 2010
- Eclipsing the Dark – OPA Press, 2020
- Everything Stops and Listens – OPA Press, 2013
- I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices – Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2022
- Paradigm Anthology – Paradigm Press, 2008
- Poets to Come: Walt Whitman's Bicentennial – Local Gems Press, 2019
- Red Thread Gold Thread – Ravensun, 2009
- A Rustling and Waking Within – OPA Press, 2017
- Sun & Shadow, Wood & Stone –Tecumseh Land Trust, 2022
Prose & Editorial
- Ohio Rocks! Activity Book, Ohio Geological Survey, 2016 (co-author)
- Your House Rocks, Ohio Geological Survey Educational Leaflet 21, 2016 (author)
- Numerous articles and editorial projects for the Ohio Geological Survey, including Minerals of Ohio and the award-winning Ohio's Geology in Core and Outcrop
- Writer and editor of numerous blog articles and newsletters for Ohio Poetry Association
Exhibitions & Workshops
Chuck's poems have been exhibited in visual format in the following shows and/or spaces:
- After Hours: Artwork by State of Ohio Employees 2021, Riffe Gallery, Columbus
- Art in the Lobby Program - Three solo exhibitions (2017, 2019, 2022) at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Columbus