Books by Peter Weltner

Bird and Tree/In Place,by Peter Weltner, is one book of poems composed of two. Its epigraph is taken from the English Romantic poet, John Clare: to "turn the blue blinders of the heavens aside/To see what gods are doing." In Weltner''s book, the gods are such fundamental powers and presences as the past, memory, human existence in place and time, passion in all its senses, and what glimpses of transcendence humanity is allowed to see. It is a poetry of quest and questioning, of a late life looking back, of form and freedom pondering those essential things long pondered before us.

LATE THOUGHTS is the most recent publication of poetry by the American poet and writer, Peter Weltner. These remarkable poems reflect the power and honesty of a poet in the fullness of his life. His poems, as described by Joseph Stroud, "...look directly at the world. They don't flinch in the face of loss and death. They strive for a transcendence where All's light, All's water, All's paradise shimmering." Or, as William O'Daly describes Weltner's poetry, "Weltner's agile, passionate ear guides and clarifies imagination, as the poems' emotional truths dance to intricate, organic music, delicate, tidal."

A mid-16th century coinage, ‘antiquary’ derives from Latin ‘ante,’ ‘before, and ‘antiquus,’ ‘former’ or ‘ancient.’  An antiquary, however, not only admires or studies old objects or books; he also copies or repeats them.  An antiquary ponders past things in part to restore them to the present.  Peter Weltner’s collection of poems and stories, Antiquary, explores pasts, both individual and historical, personal and communal, in search of what endures not as relics, not as mere collectibles or dated things, but as lasting images and values.  It seeks to find those meanings, for good or for ill, which persist through time, the abiding human desires and experiences of suffering that confound then with now.

An exciting new book of poetry by the American poet, Peter Weltner, publsihed by Marrowstone Press. Many poems, haiku-like, begin in a landscape that branches quickly into primal terrain, textual and sensual, where the past weaves its spell into a present always on the cusp of slipping away.