Wanderlust, Poems by Dawn Schout

A lust for life, for immersion, and for connection: these are the passions that drive the energetic poems and striking photographs of Dawn Schout's Wanderlust.

Sample Poems by Dawn Schout

"Much more than geography is explored in Dawn Schout's powerful new collection, Wanderlust. Dawn's evocative poems explore relationships, self-doubt, love, fear, abandonment, and happiness, however fleeting, creating themes that speak to all in language as lovely as it is compelling. Dawn has a wonderful way of turning a poem on its head, of the last line redefining the words preceding it, that is unique in my experience. This is a collection of poetry that is beautiful and provocative, from one of the brightest young lights in the literary world."-D.E. Johnson

"The figures in Dawn Schout's Wanderlust wander indeed, rootless and searching, exploring the world as they explore their own emotions and motivations. These are poems of place-or more accurately, of placelessness. A quick scan of the titles-'On the Rim,' 'Dangling Above Earth,' 'Baggage,' 'Awakening'-reveals clearly the themes Schout is addressing here. 'I flash my camera in the darkness,' one speaker tells us, 'to see what lies in the depths.' Yet what is most compelling about this collection stems from the 'lust' half of the title. There is a physicality to these poems, a sensuality revealed through hunger, fear, desire. We wander because we lust-and what we learn in the end is at once unsettling and uplifting: 'Everywhere she runs / she leaves holes,' one traveler discovers, and these poems are not afraid to fall into those holes to see what adventure lies within."-Amorak Huey

"The poems in Wanderlust reflect quiet, careful observations of the world we live in: from the tall sequoias of northern California to the London underground; from the iconic Falls of Niagara to the exotic ruins in southeast Asia. With straightforward language and imagery, Dawn Schout offers the reader not only a landscape of places but a landscape of relationships. Her poems, with their small gestures, resonate with larger mysteries that 'only the wind can take away.'"-Linda Nemec Foster

"The ancient Greek essayist Plutarch defined poetry as 'painting that speaks.' The poems which have grown out of Dawn Schout's travels are like miniature paintings that bring the reader to a place, at a moment in time. Then, on a second reading-just as with the second look at a painting-one notices a detail, a nuance, that didn't seem to be there before."-Albert Bell

"Wanderlust is a book of poetry but also a series of rich journeys. Read and enjoy these gems from the American West to Munich, Rome, London and more."-Patricia Clark

Dawn Schout's poetry has appeared in publications such as Breadcrumb Scabs, Fogged Clarity, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Muscle & Blood Literary Journal, Poetry Quarterly, Red River Review, The Centrifugal Eye, and Tipton Poetry Journal. She won the Lucidity Poetry Journal Contest and the Academy of American Poets' Free Verse Photo Contest.

Her interests include reading, traveling, photography, art, horseback riding, running, and cycling. She lives in west Michigan.

ISBN 978-1625491169, 86 pages

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