This collection of poetry by award-winning poet Valerie Nieman is
praised by National Book Award finalist Sarah Lindsay, who says,
"Valerie Nieman writes poems with long tap roots, and poems with sharp
beaks that strike swiftly. They cast off from the known, or fix the
familiar with a clear gaze, and unmoor the reader either way. For a
nameless hunger and restlessness, here are guide and supplies and
hills to climb, all in one fine book." Fred Chappell, former Poet
Laureate of North Carolina, offers the following: "Like the millwright
in her poem, Valerie Nieman seems "with bare hands (to) embrace live
steam." Wake Wake Wake is sinew and tendon, hard muscle and bruised
bone; the volume sings with every inch of the body and every breath of
the spirit. If she speaks of "hearing that we have all fallen short,"
she yet believes¿she knows¿"the way a path is best walked/not by
looking down/but by looking out." Would you be stout of heart,
steadfast of purpose? Read Valerie Nieman."
