I’m delighted to announce the publication of Mountains that See in the Dark by talented poet, Regine Ebner, published by the awesome poetry press Black Bough Poetry.
A collection of 52 blindingly bright, desert poems from Arizona poet, Regine Ebner
Advanced Praise for Mountains that See in the Dark
The opening poem turns us loose upon the slopes of the ‘whiskey-savage mountain’, where civilization and wilderness jostle against each other in a shadowed, ‘bone-raked’ terrain that yet glows with elemental colour. In a series of sharp-edged images illumined by a cowboy moon, the poet repeatedly captures ‘turnaround day[s]’, guiding us through subtle shifts between darkness and light, frost and flame, movement and stillness, human and beyond human, death and life. There is a prevailing sense of coiled energy, poems crouching like coyotes ready to spring. Ebner is not tempted to add a gloss to her images but simply allows them to serenade us with ‘shades of hallelujah’, a phrase which captures their brooding but reverent intensity. Indeed, the experience of reading this collection felt to me like watching and weathering with the poet in ever-changing desert light, awaiting that precious moment of revelation.
Alice Stainer, author of Headlands (Live Canon, 2024).
One of my favorite poets in the Black Bough constellation, Regine Ebner writes with a mastery and finesse that elevates the mundane into the sublime. Through her keen imagistic lens, the reader is invited to see everyday objects in novel dimensions, transforming the familiar into the extraordinary. A master wordsmith, Ebner’s use of language is precise yet expansive, creating whole worlds within stanzas that readers can fully experience and inhabit. Her work seamlessly combines intellectual rigor with emotional authenticity, crafting poetry that both challenges and nurtures the soul.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad, author of ‘Patchwork Fugue’ (Atomic Bohemian Press, 2024)
When I was a child, one of my favorite pastimes was waking up early on weekends when I knew my parents would be sleeping for a while to dig through the back-room cabinets where my folks kept their keepsakes. I loved digging through all the cubbies where my mom stowed the things she’d collected over the years. My favorite box to pull down and sift through was a box of river glass she’d picked up on family trips to high ground over the years. That box was so full of textures and colors, like nothing else in our house. Each piece had its own exquisite shade of green or blue or amber, and smooth edges of all angles. I can still feel the heft of that glass in my palm if I let memory take me back to that cabinet. The closest I’ve ever gotten to that experience reading a book of poems is Regine Ebner’s new collection, Mountains That See in the Dark. Page by page, Ebner’s lines hold on to memories as if they were the most beautiful of mementos. Cowboys, lizards, wild geese, the last red of day—all of it pristine and fascinating.
Jack B. Bedell, author of Ghost Forest (Mercer University Press, 2024), Poet Laureate of Louisiana (2017-2019).
Patricia M Osborne 