Big thanks to The Lake (UK) and author critic Charles Rammelkamp for their positive review of my new book, Singing the Forge, now out with Wasteland Press. Click here to read, the third book reviewed: https://thelakepoetry.co.uk/reviews/jan26/.
Reviewer Charles Rammelkamp writes: “In Singing the Forge, G.H. Mosson, to invoke [an] image of Walt Whitman one more time, does ‘sing the body electric.’ Or maybe it’s the spirit, the life.”
The book is now out with Wasteland Press in print and as an e-book. You can purchase it here.
I could say it’s a new poem, but the poem is newly revised at the most. Yup, it found its final form as a prose poem like a snowflake finding its final form by melting on your fingertip. I am not in the new stage of life, really, anyway. I appreciate the inclusion and good company.
Happy to announce: I am reading from my new book of poems, Singing the Forge, as part of the Big Light Reading Series in Baltimore, hosted by poet-editor Rachel Adams and Lines & Stars, online journal of poetry and short prose, on Saturday night, Nov. 1, 2025, at 7pm at Atomic Books, in Baltimore, Md. The address for Atomic Books is 3618 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211.
Guess what, I also plan to read Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” in tandem with some of my own spookier poems from my new collection, including “Ghost Villa,” “Ghost of Green Mount Cemetery,” and maybe a “Wanderer’s Night Song,” one of three translations in the book. I performed the poem a few years ago in Hazelton, PA, to what appeared to be delight. However, what about Poe’s hometown, or one of them?
I am reading with two other poets. Here are their shortened bios:
Michele Evans, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, is the author of purl (Finishing Line Press, 2025), a contemporary poetry collection inspired by Homer’s Odyssey and the verses of Phillis Wheatley Peters. She teaches in Northern Virginia, and you can find her online at www.awordsmithie.com.
Allison Whittenberg is an award-winning poet, novelist, and playwright. They Were Horrible Cooks is her collection of poetry. Her novels include Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine, and The Sane Asylum.
G.H. Mosson is the author of three books and three chapbooks of poetry, including most recently,Singing the Forge (David Robert Books), Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time (Finishing Line Press, 2019), and two collaborative chapbooks from PM Press. For more, check out www.ghmosson.com.
About Singing the Forge, Heena Rathore-Pardeshi reviewing it at The Reading Bud recently said: “Throughout the book, Mosson balances philosophy and tenderness. The poems meditate on memory, childhood, work, and the constant tension between chaos and harmony. You sense an awareness that life itself is a form of art, ever unfinished, ever reshaped by our hands and hearts.”
Thank you to Heena Rathore-Pardeshi for the positive, insightful review of my new book of poems, Singing the Forge (David Robert Books 2025). She writes generously at The Reading Bud:
“Throughout the book, Mosson balances philosophy and tenderness. The poems meditate on memory, childhood, work, and the constant tension between chaos and harmony. You sense an awareness that life itself is a form of art, ever unfinished, ever reshaped by our hands and hearts. . . .”
She concludes:
“Singing the Forge is a beautifully crafted, powerful collection that rewards patience and reflection. It’s for readers who find comfort in language that hums with meaning and for those who believe poetry still has the power to make sense of our shared becoming.”
It’s great to work on something, most often alone, and find out it has been heard, maybe even stirred another’s mediation on their concerns. For the full review, click here.
There are many problems with social media, of course. Well, it occurs to me that once you have started looking at a topic for a spell, today’s algorithms lock you into a feedback loop.
The Internet’s feedback loop can have a negative psychological effect. It seems the basic mechanism of many psychological problems is based on feedback loops (from the past) one cannot escape (in the present). If this is being re-enacted via the Internet, whether via social media, search engine results, or even one’s computer-phone these days, this structural miasma does not bode well for us, as individuals, as families, or as a society.
I don’t know when this started. Generally, I’m still new to social media. I did not use the Internet much for a while, when our children were born in ye olden times. This said, I just don’t remember the Internet being so predictable in the 1990s. It’s news to me, so to speak.
In sum, recurring thoughts, especially negative thoughts–that loop–is the stuff of psychological problems. Social media algorithms and maybe even search-engine algorithms, thus, may lock people into unhealthy repetitive mental habits via looking at the same, same, same.
Well, the rap song, “Not Today Satan,” by younger rappers KB & Andy Mineo, is a good anti-theme to this Internet phenomena. Their song’s linked here.
As they say: Not today Satan, NAH Nah Nah NAH Nah, nah-nah-nah-NAH!
Thank you to Enakshi of Lavender Orchids for the positive review of my new book of poems, Singing the Forge (David Robert Books 2025). She writes:
“Reading G.H. Mosson’s Singing the Forge felt like walking through the echoes of memory — personal and collective — where ‘what’s shaped us and ‘what we’ve shaped for ourselves‘ becomes both question and confession. The poems oscillate between quiet introspection and social witness, drawing their strength from observation rather than ornament. Mosson’s voice isn’t loud; it hums — the kind of hum that lingers after the song ends.”
Next week on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, I’m reading from my new book of poems, SINGING THE FORGE, at the My Dead Aunt’s Books Reading Series in the quirky nook of Hyattsville, Md., starting at 5pm. It’s near the D.C. Beltway, at 5132 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, Md. 20781.
Hosted by D.C. poet Sid Gold, the salon style reading features myself and poet Brandel France de Bravo as co-featured readers. As usual, the session is followed by an open mike.
Sid’s been hosting this series for more than a spell. Located in the Sohy Arts Building, depicted below, you can get there just off the D.C. Beltway by College Park, Maryland.
Thank you to Jeyran Main of Review Tales for the positive review of my new book of poems, Singing the Forge (David Robert Books 2025), which Main calls “especially memorable is its capacity to mirror the reader’s own journey.” Main also notes the collection reminds readers of “how personal history and collective history are inseparably linked.”
The review concludes:
“Singing the Forge is a book to savor, cherish, and revisit, offering readers both challenge and consolation in equal measure.”
Thank you to Diane Donovan of Midwest Book Review for the positive review of my new book of poems, Singing the Forge (David Robert Books 2025), which she calls “immersive.”
As Donovan notes, the book takes place in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, for the most part, with stops in Oregon, Baja California, off the coast of Florida, the cliffs of Truro in Cape Cod, on Long Island beaches, and beyond. The review comments:
“Libraries seeking accessible poetry that demonstrates an especially notable ability to steep readers in the progression of life, the evolution of values surrounding it, and the advancing years will find Mosson’s work highly recommendable.”
If you are looking for something literary in Maryland next weekend, there is the Baltimore Book Festival, which is held in Waverly, Baltimore, Md., this year on Sat. and Sun., Sept. 13-14, 2025.
Thank you to the Baker Artist organization for having me at their table on Sunday, Sept. 14, 11:30 AM to 1 PM, featuring my new book of poems, SINGING THE FORGE. Stop by!
There’s a pretty extensive line up of authors and discussion occurring across multiple stages; for more information, some handy links are below:
