Several of the people who have encouraged my work have generously provided some words, poetic in themselves, for the back cover to entice readers into the book.
Kenneth Sehested, pastor, poet, peacebuilder, and author of In the Land of the Living: Prayers Personal and Public
“Good poets, like Bill Everett, perform a kind of chicanery of the spirit, distracting our attention just long enough to allow revelation to slip past the guards of preoccupied minds. As in: “Earth gasping . . . Sends lilies up in mourning / the rainbow as a pledge / the cockroach as a warning / the raven as a hedge.”
Kathryn Stripling Byer, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina, and author of Descent, Wildwood Flower, Black Shawl, and other books.
“William Everett’s beautifully structured Turnings gathers together limpid poems of memory that shine like pebbles underneath the clearest flow of water, as well as poems of personal faith and theological wisdom. Rising up from the pages like long-forgotten messages, they glow in the light of Everett’s language: lyrical, crystal clear, as if on the brink of turning into nothing less than song itself.”
J. C. Walkup, Penny Morse, and Buffy Queen, editors of Fresh, where some of my poems have appeared:
“Everett is a master of words, fitting the right words together the way a master mason fits stones to shape beautiful structures. Poems he constructs reflect solid integrity. Readers can depend on his writing to convey thoughtful expressions, ethical conclusions, and invigorating structural styles, selected to match the themes of each piece. His poetry reassures us that all good poetry does not belong to the past.”
Michael Beadle, poet and educator, author of The Invented Hour, and Invitation:
“Everett is a daring poet who leads us deeper into the language of experience. His poems are full of wonder and insight, celebrating the beauty in nature while discovering grace in the mundane. At times meditative, at other turns inventively irreverent, Turnings leads us to reexamine the past and ponder the present, whether it’s a biblical story or a personal memory. Turn the pages and find poems of transformation.”