This is Brian Walters third collection of poetry. As with his previous collections, Watie's Surrender and Other Civil War Narratives has something for everyone. Walters ranges effortlessly from brutal epic narrative poetry to gentle whimsical verse. His narrative poetry is as easy to read as the finest prose, pulling you in so completely that you often forget that you are reading poetry and not a novel. His verse celebrates life and all that comes along with it. Sometimes touching, sometimes stirring, always engaging, Walters' poetry will remain with you long after you close the pages of the book. This collection tracks the American Civil War showing the brutality, senselessness, bravery, and courage that shook America to it's foundations and forever changed us. Born into a family that treated books like gold, Brian Walters, when not engaged in sports of all kinds, avidly read his father's collections of old stories about the wild west and American history in general. After graduating from George Mason University, he lived in Denmark for ten years, where he was much influenced by the Scandinavian climate and Old Norse literature. A number of his poems and one literary essay have been published in various magazines, this is his third collection. He currently resides in Blacksburg, Virginia with his wife and two children.

Brian Walters is a rare poet --tuned to history as few have been for a generation or more. He is alert for those critical moments that reveal a place, time and a human heart with energy and clarity, and gives them to us. Bitter, terrible, sweet, whatever they are, for they are our heritage and what has formed us over the centuries. Human bravery, savagery, thoughtfulness, and passion all find a place in his work. There is even room for hope and love in spite of everything. --Howard McCord

This is Brian Walters second collection of poetry. As with his first collection, Vinland has something for everyone. Walters ranges effortlessly from brutal epic narrative poetry to gentle whimsical verse. His narrative poetry is as easy to read as the finest prose, pulling you in so completely that you often forget that you are reading poetry and not a novel. His verse celebrates life and all that comes along with it. Sometimes touching, sometimes stirring, always engaging, Walters' poetry will remain with you long after you close the pages of the book. Born into a family that treated books like gold, Brian Walters, when not engaged in sports of all kinds, avidly read his father's collections of old stories about the wild west and American history in general. After graduating from George Mason University, he lived in Denmark for ten years, where he was much influenced by the Scandinavian climate and Old Norse literature. A number of his poems and one literary essay have been published in various magazines. He currently resides in Blacksburg, Virginia with his wife and two children.

Written in the reign of Nero-the emperor against whom Lucan was implicated in a conspiracy and by whom he was compelled to commit suicide at the age of 25-the poet's dark, ambiguous, unfinished masterpiece focuses on the disintegration of the Roman body politic and the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey that ultimately lead to the end of the Roman republic. While aiming for a poem both as rugged as Lucan's-with its mix of history and fantasy, of high and low registers, of common and uncommon turns of phrase, of narrative and declamation-and as reader-friendly as possible, Brian Walters owns that he has "nowhere tried to simplify the rhetorical excesses that are the essence of Lucan's poem, the real meat and bone of the Civil War ." A brilliant Introduction by W. R. Johnson discusses the poem's relationship to Nero and monarchy; its invocations of both the gods and chaos; the real hero of the Civil War ; and the poem's end and narrative styles. Synopses of individual books; suggestions for further reading; a glossary of names, places, and Roman institutions; and a map are also included.

That the Roman republic died is a commonplace often repeated. In extant literature, the notion is first given form in the works of the orator Cicero (106-43 BCE) and his contemporaries, though the scattered fragments of orators and historians from the earlier republic suggest that the idea was hardly new. In speeches, letters, philosophical tracts, poems, and histories, Cicero and his peers obsessed over the illnesses, disfigurements, and deaths that were imagined to have beset their body politic, portraying rivals as horrific diseases or accusing opponents of butchering and even murdering the state. Body-political imagery had long enjoyed popularity among Greek authors, but these earlier images appear muted in comparison and it is only in the republic that the body first becomes fully articulated as a means for imagining the political community. In the works of republican authors is found a state endowed with nervi, blood, breath, limbs, and organs; a body beaten, wounded, disfigured, and infected; one with scars, hopes, desires, and fears; that can die, be killed, or kill in turn. Such images have often been discussed in isolation, yet this is the first book to offer a sustained examination of republican imagery of the body politic, with particular emphasis on the use of bodily-political images as tools of persuasion and the impact they exerted on the politics of Rome in the first century BCE.

Written in the reign of Nero-the emperor against whom Lucan was implicated in a conspiracy and by whom he was compelled to commit suicide at the age of 25-the poet's dark, ambiguous, unfinished masterpiece focuses on the disintegration of the Roman body politic and the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey that ultimately lead to the end of the Roman republic. While aiming for a poem both as rugged as Lucan's-with its mix of history and fantasy, of high and low registers, of common and uncommon turns of phrase, of narrative and declamation-and as reader-friendly as possible, Brian Walters owns that he has "nowhere tried to simplify the rhetorical excesses that are the essence of Lucan's poem, the real meat and bone of the Civil War ." A brilliant Introduction by W. R. Johnson discusses the poem's relationship to Nero and monarchy; its invocations of both the gods and chaos; the real hero of the Civil War ; and the poem's end and narrative styles. Synopses of individual books; suggestions for further reading; a glossary of names, places, and Roman institutions; and a map are also included.

The Art of Life Is the Avoiding of Pain is Brian Walters' fourth collection of stories and poetry. As with all of Walters' poetry you'll find this book accessible and moving, but this is without a doubt his most powerful book to date. As a physical therapist Walters is welcomed into the homes of a vast cross-section of society, and he opens a window on the quiet desperation that so many of our neighbors live with every day. This collection is both beautiful and, at times, profoundly sad. Brian Walters is a rare poet-tuned to history as few have been for a generation or more. He is alert for those critical moments that reveal a place, time, and a human heart with energy and clarity, and gives them to us. Bitter, terrible, sweet, whatever they are, for they are our heritage and what has formed us over the centuries. Human bravery, savagery, thoughtfulness, and passion all find a place in his work. There is even room for hope and love in spite of everything. -Howard McCord

Brian Wood, a now retired Police Sergeant from the Thames Valley Police, recaps some of his humorous and occasionally serious encounters during his 30 years 'in the force'. His experiences include an instance with the Great Train Robbery for which he was awarded recognition for his participation. "As I walked under the Town Hall arch, on my way off duty I was confronted by a man holding a knife who had suddenly appeared out of the darkness. He advanced screaming that he was going to kill me" Not your normal activity on a peaceful evening in Aylesbury. Look out for Brian's second book aptly called 'More Ramblings of a Rustic Copper' due for publishing in 2014.

Brian Walters is a rare poet-tuned to history as few have been for a generation or more. He is alert for those critical moments that reveal a place, time and a human heart with energy and clarity, and gives them to us. Bitter, terrible, sweet, whatever they are, for they are our heritage and what has formed us over the centuries. Human bravery, savagery, thoughtfulness, and passion all find a place in his work. There is even room for hope and love in spite of everything. -Howard McCord