2019 Turtle Light Press Haiku Chapbook Competition Winner
In this exquisite collection, Furrows of Snow, Glenn G. Coats guides us on a meditative journey down a handful of East Coast rivers. He offers us a timeless celebration of fishing and life on the river as well as poignant reminders of our aging, as reflected in the poems about his mother.
Coats has always found solace along rivers. As a boy, he often went fishing on the Toms River as well as at Barnegat Bay in New Jersey. Sometimes he went with his father or grandfather - and sometimes with his kids and grandchildren. It was always a way to unwind and relax.
Over the past 30 years, Coats has won several prizes and had innumerable poems published in journals around the world. A retired reading teacher who now resides in Carolina Springs, NC, Coats began writing seriously himself after teaching the genre to his students.
"In these delicately crafted haiku, Coats brings the reader into a contemplative space where time passes at the unhurried pace of the river," said Susan Antolin, the judge of the 2019 contest. "You'll be sure to enjoy this stunning collection."
Aside from its almost 30 moving poems, the book features seven photos plus the back story of how it came to be written. You'll find peace and comfort in these haiku poems as you meander along.
"With music and delicacy, Glenn Coats' Furrows of Snow is a very compelling collection of haiku that unspools with sound, the river and a fleeting sense of time from page to page." Lenard D. Moore, Former President, Haiku Society of America
