SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Feb. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- It is rare for a book to touch on the whole range of human experience. Don Eischen's collection of poems, Mirror Up to Nature (now available through 1stBooks Library) has taken on this difficult but awe-inspiring task, bringing to readers verses on the cycles of life -- birth, living, and dying.
He calls his poems sojourns that bring readers "from innocence to experience, from youth to age, from confusion to clarity, from sanity to madness and vice versa, from life to death and...from defeat to triumph." Through these phases and transitions, Eischen's verses crackle with humor and satire, simmer with anger and protest, and blossom with the emotion of love.
The title of the book, Mirror Up to Nature has been inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, and captures the overall mood of the book. In the book's foreword, Eischen recalls when his brother Joe talked to him about life's experiences and advised him to "hold the mirror up to nature" and he'd be a champ. It expresses the wonder with which Eischen has held life and his interest in understanding the essence, the quality and the character of beings.
The first five chapters are poems on Eischen's life, particularly his childhood. The poem So Much Depends on the Big Red Wagon speaks about Eischen's relationship with his brothers and father. The preface to Mirror Up To Nature contains his childhood recollections -- his accident at 6 months old, the day he went missing (he followed his father going somewhere but ended up sleeping under a grapevine), the first time he saw Santa Claus, and his friendship with his brother Joe.
He dedicates one of his poems to women, The Purple Grape. It speaks about the struggle to rise from a fall and finally claim the triumph that was previously elusive. Eischen was inspired to finish his collection of poems by his wife, Jennie Capriola, who died in 1999. Born in Fresno, Eischen was a college/university professor and supervisor for the Fresno Unified School District. Dr. Eischen holds a doctorate, with summa cum laude honors, in English literature. A multi-awarded poet, he was among the poets invited to read at the 1997 inauguration of President Bill Clinton. He lives in Santa Cruz, Calif.
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