This collection was originally self-published as a chapbook in April 1974. The poems were written between 1970 and 1973, when the poet was 20 to 23 years old. Most are here printed exactly as they were in 1974 except for a few minor edits for this second and 40th Anniversary edition.

"Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves" gathers semi-autobiographical poetry about a boyhood and adult life lived in conversation with nature. In this volume, Sam describes a life shaped by his youth in Pennsylvania and Michigan and his journey by thumb through the Pacific Northwest. The imprint of these experiences molds his ecological holism and sense of the holiness of the commonplace and of all life. All profits to the author from the sale of this book will be donated to the Germanna Community College Educational Foundation. What other poets are saying about "Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves" "David Sam is a poet of deep identity with the natural world. In these intimate narratives of discovery and awe, the poems speak often with an almost breathless urgency, reminding us of the inexhaustible life within life, testaments to a unique sensitivity, in a boy and then a man. In journeys both actual and metaphorical, the self is not different than rivers or sunrise. 'I am made of water and wild air, ' one poem says. The lucky reader breathes deeply." - Allan Peterson, author of Fragile Acts and All the Lavish in Common "David Anthony Sam's poems are literally rooted in the earth, seeded in the rich, dark soil. Whether he's writing about childhood or the rivers of Pennsylvania, these poems are filled with fields, mountains, lakes, snow and stars; they remind us that human life is found in the morning air, in the golden rays of the rising sun, in a bird's call as dusk arrives. Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves is an impressive book that will transport you into the natural world where, as Sam writes, you will become 'forgetful and human again.'" - David James, author of She Dances Like Mussolini, winner of the 2010 Next Generation Indie book award in poetry