Overview

"Collecting Dust: Sonnets (Thus Far) engages both common and particular experiences of faith, celebration, affection, and loss. The lyrics in these poems sing of meditations on divine mystery, efforts for ritual festivity, pledges in close relationships, and glimpses into critical decline. """"We lean together, joyful as we weep."""" This closing line to """"YOKEFELLOW"""" depicts mutual support between two friends; it also describes the experience between author and audience standing side by side at an observer's window to the world, looking on as people move through their varied circumstances. Four Bins organize this collection of encounters: """"Clothes Hamper for Time after Time"""" considers belief; """"Storage Tubs for Christ's Mass"""" recounts holiday; """"Table Crumbs for Friends and Lovers"""" touches on intimacy; and """"Plot Numbers for Madison Cemeteries"""" explores demise. The crafted meter and varied rhyme schemes in these sonnets support the devised imagery, metaphor, allusion, and symbolism to create perspective, irony, paradox, and tone. Readers looking through these poetic windows may well see their own reflections staring back into their souls."

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9781725299047

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Reviews

Swept clear of dust, these poems speak of life and death, of hope and joy and loss, and of the eternal graciousness of the Maker. --Marie Garrett, retired English Studies and Theater librarian, University of Tennessee Professor Wheeler's literary imagination reflects his deep awareness of biblical and theological themes. His unique observations of the human experience demonstrate both poetic skill and a pastor's heart. --L. Thomas Smith Jr., president, Johnson University Opening Collecting Dust for the first time feels like discovering a wooden chest in the attic. Inside we find a treasury of images: a summer's leap off the high dive; a lonely walk through the moonlit snow; a fallen pilot's last gasp of blue sky. Ron's portals to the best and worst of our existence offer a sustenance we lack in our superficial times--once open, this collection won't stay dusty for long. --Tony Sobota, visual artist, Nashville, Tennessee Like the dust on my furniture, I have repeatedly returned to reread the sonnets in Wheeler's work. Be careful! His delightful and contemplative verses are crafted in such a way as to be difficult to get out of your head. And while you may seek to eliminate the dust on your furniture, you will enjoy the reappearance of these sonnets as they creep back into your thoughts. --Chelly Templeton, dean, School of Education and Behavioral Studies, Palm Beach Atlantic University In Collecting Dust, we find a poet's seasoned reflections that are grounded in a faith that rises from and descends into the nature's earth. From meditations on the seasons to liturgy to aspirations ascending from headstones, Ron Wheeler bids us to join him as friends in walking along this way. Here readers can encounter a faithful wisdom well worth pondering. --Jess Hale, attorney and Uniform Law Commissioner, Tennessee

Swept clear of dust, these poems speak of life and death, of hope and joy and loss, and of the eternal graciousness of the Maker. --Marie Garrett, retired English Studies and Theater librarian, University of Tennessee Professor Wheeler's literary imagination reflects his deep awareness of biblical and theological themes. His unique observations of the human experience demonstrate both poetic skill and a pastor's heart. --L. Thomas Smith Jr., president, Johnson University Opening Collecting Dust for the first time feels like discovering a wooden chest in the attic. Inside we find a treasury of images: a summer's leap off the high dive; a lonely walk through the moonlit snow; a fallen pilot's last gasp of blue sky. Ron's portals to the best and worst of our existence offer a sustenance we lack in our superficial times--once open, this collection won't stay dusty for long. --Tony Sobota, visual artist, Nashville, Tennessee Like the dust on my furniture, I have repeatedly returned to reread the sonnets in Wheeler's work. Be careful! His delightful and contemplative verses are crafted in such a way as to be difficult to get out of your head. And while you may seek to eliminate the dust on your furniture, you will enjoy the reappearance of these sonnets as they creep back into your thoughts. --Chelly Templeton, dean, School of Education and Behavioral Studies, Palm Beach Atlantic University In Collecting Dust, we find a poet's seasoned reflections that are grounded in a faith that rises from and descends into the nature's earth. From meditations on the seasons to liturgy to aspirations ascending from headstones, Ron Wheeler bids us to join him as friends in walking along this way. Here readers can encounter a faithful wisdom well worth pondering. --Jess Hale, attorney and Uniform Law Commissioner, Tennessee

Author Information

Ronald E. Wheeler instructs students in composition and literature courses at Johnson University in Knoxville, Tennessee (fall 1977 to present). He also taught rhetorical studies for Tusculum College at the Knoxville campus (May 1995 through October 2006). He teaches an adult fellowship of readers at Woodlawn Christian Church. Ron and his wife, Martha, have two adult children and eight grandchildren. Collecting Dust is his first published collection of poetry.

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