Nightscapes, a new poetry collection, is using wolves to promote itself.
Nightscapes, a new poetry collection from Iowa pastor Evan Welcher, is using wolves to promote itself across social media.
The promotion team is known as “the Wolf Pack,” and several T-shirts related to the project, in addition to the cover art, feature a wolf’s head.
This is used because of a metaphor in the opening poem and the ongoing theme of being a nocturnal creature going through life, and also because Welcher simply finds wolves fascinating, partially because they mate for life and form nuclear families within their packs.
Nightscapes is now available for $12.99 on Amazon.
The cover was designed by Evan’s wife Rachel, who is a poet herself in addition to being a magazine editor, having previously published the collections Blue Tarp and Two Funerals, Then Easter, both of which are also available on Amazon.
Many of the poems were written around or about the death of Welcher’s first wife Danielle, who passed away from cancer. They are written in a free verse style, so don’t really rhyme, but the intensity and honesty shines through every clearly-defined phrase, which makes sense for a fan of Wendell Berry’s writing.
Though it’s not the focus, there is some canine-centric poetry within, as the wolf imagery indicates, as well as one titled “Old Frank,” about Evan’s “itchy-eared mutt of suspect heritage,” a rescue dog who was found as a stray in a ditch years ago.
Frank does his best to assist Evan and Rachel in their writing by lying quietly at their feet as the keyboards clatter.
We are very much fans of good dog poetry here at Dog O’Day, just as we are for dog literature of all kinds, for dogs are so simple a subject that they often get overlooked when it comes to poetry or songwriting.
“It’s about love and loss and the fantastical,” Welcher summarized. “I hope readers take away a spring in their step as they step into the depths.”
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