In Falling River, master poet Al Rocheleau offers a comprehensive, 832-page collection of his best work, spanning a five decade period beginning in 1976. The book is titled in tribute to the poet's home town, Fall River, Massachusetts, where he became a poet as a student.
Al's verse has appeared in more than eighty magazines in six countries. It can be found at websites as diverse as the Surratt House Museum in Washington, DC and the Saint Bernadette Institute of Sacred Art in New Mexico. It has been read on the radio, sung at the funerals, and earned honors such as the Thomas Burnett Swann Award from the Gwendolyn Brooks Writers Association, for the poem "Some People."
Falling River offers all kinds of poems of various forms, intents, and levels of ambition, poems heavy and light, sacred and profane. Al Rocheleau is a respected poet throughout the world and the publication of his new book has elicited praise from many other renowned poets:
"These poems, so full of love and seriousness, have a good chance of lasting." -- Lola Haskins, Poet and Recipient, National Endowment for the Arts and Florida Arts Fellowships, Iowa Poetry Prize
"Falling River is a masterful collection of poems that is encyclopedic in scope. It is a book to be studied for its craftsmanship and attests to an art of reading poetry." -- Sue Walker, Professor Emerita, Poet Laureate, State of Alabama 2001-2012, Publisher, Negative Capability Press
"Al Rocheleau is not just one of the best poets I know-- he's among the best poets I've ever read." -- Noel Haynes, Poet and Recipient, Thomas Burnett Swann Award, N.E.A. Rockefeller / Warhol Foundations Grant, United Arts of Central Florida Award, Lead Learning Architect, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
"You feel your heart break into tiny pieces, resonating with aesthetic, affective, natural, and precious waves, rising and elevated in time. Would that all poets have this collection in their hands. The wonder of Al's life's work is likewise revealed in the work of his Twelve Chairs Course students-- unique, precise, rarefied, and unforgettable. The four decades of poems shared in Falling River are life-changing." -- Carol Thomas Ph.D., Poet and Retired Professor, Women's Studies, Poetry, Literature, and Creative Writing, Cameron University, St. Leo University
Al Rocheleau currently lives in Orlando, Florida, and is an officer of the Florida State Poets Association.
