The sonnet form, itself, demands dissent, even defiance, which is perfect for a poet the caliber of Cameron Morse. "If given / a choice, I'd have had more children," he writes. Thus, he announces, "Disease is underrated." Among the conditions of his life, there is dark humor, where "The phlebotomist must like the taste / of my blood," combined with a push against the dark. Steady yourself. Cameron Morse exhibits the holy tension between life's limited time and his fatherly, infinite love.
-Robert Stewart, Working Class: Poems
"You only get so many sunsets," writes Cameron Morse in Sonnetizer. The poem "No Way" begins, "There's no way to rush recovery. / The body waits to feel all right, / for the stars in its spine to align." This transforms the ailing body into a site of mythic transformation. Morse is an experienced seer with wisdom to impart. It behooves us to listen.
-Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09
Cameron Morse's Sonnetizer limps and leans and then flies straight through the heart of what matters to us most when we feel the unraveling of our bodies begin. With great skill and tenderness, Morse presents to us a landscape of confused nature, failing health, and the rallying point that is the energy of a new life. What I loved about reading and re-reading this collection was how often I thought of my own body, my own family, and as he puts it, "The kiss of existence is fading / on my forehead, forever disappearing / handed over to a final daughter."
-Darren C. Demaree, a child walks in the dark
In Sonnetizer, Cameron Morse, though dealing with a long-term struggle with brain cancer, doesn't ask for pity. When he touches on his illness, his attitude is stoic, even wry. The primary subject of these unrhymed sonnets is what he calls our "otherworldly world," where he focuses on nature, fatherhood, and, most of all, the illusive "understory we wade through." These well-crafted poems, rich in evocative imagery and fresh tropes, will sharpen your spiritual eyesight.
