nature poetry

Official Book Trailer for B. L. Bruce's Newest Collection 'Measures'

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores the visual measures of time and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

NEW RELEASE: Measures by B. L. Bruce (Poetry)

In February of 2014, B. L. Bruce’s debut collection of poetry, The Weight of Snow, was published. Now, seven years later, her latest collection, Measures, is here.


In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores grief, loss, the visual measures of time, and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.

In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.


“As its poems tread through forests, over mountains, and along the water . . . Measures captivates.”  — Clarion Reviews

“[B. L. Bruce’s] newest poetry collection, Measures, by turns elicits tenderness and melancholy, hopefulness and heartbreak—which is to say, the gamut of the human condition. . . . Bruce’s collection offers many accomplished and memorable moments.”  — BlueInk Review

“Lyrical and reflective, award-winning Bruce’s latest, a collection of poems, micropoetry, and American haiku, offers a litany of ruminations on nature, love, and self. . . . Readers seeking meditations on nature, life, love, and spiritual renewal won’t be able to put [down] this perceptive, deeply engrossing read. This is a winner.” — The Prairies Book Review

"Lyrical poems on the beauty of the natural world contrasted against the fragile, sometimes broken nature of the human experience." — Andrea Janda, Visitant

“Lyrical poems on the beauty of the natural world contrasted against the fragile, sometimes broken nature of the human experience.” — Cheriese Francoise Anderson, Author of Wild Chai

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Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Wayfarer Journal, Canary, The Remnant Archive, Northwind Magazine, The Soundings Review, The Monterey Poetry Review, and the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal, among many others. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of four books: The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song was released in February of 2016, and was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. In addition to her writing pursuits, Bruce is the Editor-in-Chief of the nature-centric literary magazine Humana Obscura , and is a painter and photographer, with work that has been featured in The Sun Magazine, Near Window, and others. Follow her on Twitter @the_poesis and on Instagram @thepoesis.

B. L. Bruce's Poem "North" Published in Visitant

NORTH

For a moment in the calm,
between gusts of wind:
the faint push of air beneath wing.
The northern harrier drifts above
a flowering field of yellow mustard.

Bobbing among the eddies,
the murre learn centuries
of the waterwork and currents,
driven unthinking by what
we cannot know.

Farther still, the north horizon
is choked with fog;
the clover lies trampled by salt wind
along the clifftop.

I turn my face into the sun.
Were it not for some small
burning ember,
I’d have lifted my arms
and fallen into the sea.

c. B. L. Bruce
First published by Visitant, November 17, 2020

Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Wayfarer Journal, Canary, Northwind Magazine, The Soundings Review, and The Monterey Poetry Review, among many others. Most recently her work has appeared in the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond JournalThe Remnant Archive, Emerge Literary Journal, and Le Merle Poetry Journal. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of three books: The Weight of Snow28 Days of Solitude, and The Starling’s Song. Her third and fourth collections of poetry are forthcoming. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song was released in February of 2016, and was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. In addition to her writing pursuits, Bruce is the Editor-in-Chief of the nature-centric literary magazine Humana Obscura, and is a painter and photographer, with work that has been featured in The Sun MagazineNear Window, and others.

Follow B. L. Bruce on Twitter @the_poesis and on Instagram @thepoesis.

Two Poems by Author B. L. Bruce in the Autumn 2020 Issue of The Remnant Archive

WHEN I DIE

When I die, burn my body.
I hope to leave with you—
among other things—
a sort of fury, enough for you
to imagine me beating the ground
with my fists, igniting. 

MIRACLE

Tell me what brings you
to your knees, what becomes of us.
Your fears.

I can tell you in my own words
what we are: we are many things—
small humors, superstitions.

It must also be said
there can be beauty in anguish—
in yours and in mine.

Each of us our own poetry,
a language of wounds, and of dawn,
and the color blue.

And aren’t we, after all,
the miracle of a long-ago mess
as though by accident?

What more need we be? 

c. B. L. Bruce

First published in The Remnant Archive, Autumn 2020 Issue

The Remnant Archive is an online journal comprising features on literature, art and history.

‘THE STARLING’S SONG’ WINS HONORABLE MENTION IN THE 2017 PACIFIC RIM BOOK FESTIVAL

HOLLYWOOD, CA – July 24th, 2017 – Award-winning poet B. L. Bruce’s third book, The Starling’s Song, has received Honorable Mention in the poetry category of the 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival, honoring the best books of the spring.

This award will be added among others the author has received, including Finalist in the 2014 International Book Awards and Finalist in the USA Book Awards in the poetry category for her debut collection of poetry titled The Weight of Snowwhich recently was re-released as a second edition under Black Swift Press (June, 2017).

The Starling’s Song was written entirely during a four-week-long stay in a rustic cabin in the remote forests of Northern California, where this unique backdrop guided much of her work in this collection.

Heralded as the “daughter of California’s wild places” by Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference executive director and author Karen Lewis, Bruce’s work continues to inspire nature-mindedness in readers and bestow them with her known lyricism and image-centric verse.

Her newest collection of poetry is set to be released late summer of 2017.

“THE HEIRESS OF MARY OLIVER” RETURNS WITH SECOND EDITION OF AWARD-WINNING COLLECTION THE WEIGHT OF SNOW

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, June 1st, 2017—Author Bri Bruce (writing under the name B. L. Bruce) of Santa Cruz will release a second edition of her debut collection of poems The Weight of Snow: New & Selected Poems on June 1, 2017 as the fifth work of Black Swift Press’s assemblage.

In the newly edited and polished version of The Weight of Snow, Bruce explores the many plights of the human species, from the mysteries of the heart and the inescapability of death, to the depths of human emotion. Told from the perspective of a poetic naturalist, Bruce shares her appreciation of the wild, illuminating the profound in the mundane while chronicling the natural world as both an observer and an irrefutable part of it. Her poems focus strongly on image and locality, conjuring the imaginations of readers and celebrating the beauty in the follies of the human condition.

Santa Cruz County’s first Poet Laureate Gary Young says of Bruce’s book, “The poems in The Weight of Snow are heartfelt, skillfully written, and keenly observed fragments of the natural world and our lives there. Bravo.” Deemed the heiress of Mary Oliver by many, of Bruce’s work Karen Lewis, author and Executive Director of the Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference, says, “There is nothing to say that would be as lyrical and eloquent as this poet’s language. She writes as a daughter of California’s wild places.” 

Since the release of the first edition, Bruce has received a number of accolades, including a Pushcart Prize nomination. The first edition of The Weight of Snow was the 2014 International Book Awards and 2014 USA Best Book Awards finalist in the poetry category. Bruce received the 2014 PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry for her haiku series published in THREE alongside then Poet Laureate Erica Goss.

A graduate of UC Santa Cruz’s literature department with a concentration in poetry, Bruce has authored two additional works under Black Swift Press’s imprint: a collection of memoirical prose written entirely during a twenty-eight-day stay in the remote forests of Northern California titled 28 Days of Solitude and a chapbook of poetry, The Starling’s Song.

Bruce is currently working on her third collection of poetry, set to be released later this year, and her coming-of-age novel ten years in the making.

 

Bruce is available for interviews and appearances. For booking presentations, media appearances, interviews, and/or book signings contact bribruceproductions@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Bri Bruce, Bri Bruce Productions
Email: bribruceproductions@gmail.com
www.bribruceproductions.net

FORCE OF NATURE: AWARD-WINNING POET B. L. BRUCE RELEASES THIRD BOOK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Bri Bruce, Bri Bruce Productions
Ph: (831)331-0245
Email: bribruceproductions@gmail.com
http://www.bribruceproductions.net

 

There is nothing to say that would be as lyrical and eloquent as this poet’s language. She writes as a daughter of California’s wild places. Words lift the edge of ordinary and invite the reader to journey through vivid and vulnerable landscapes.  - Karen K. Lewis, Author and Executive Director at Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference 

 

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, April 1st, 2016 — Award-winning author B. L. Bruce will release her third book with Black Swift Press, The Starling’s Song, this April. She is planning a book launch party this summer that will celebrate her third release as well as the recent acquisition of her debut collection, The Weight of Snow, by Smooth Stones Press and pre-order by Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

Bruce was awarded the PushPen Press Pendent Prize for poetry in November of 2014 following the selection of seven of her poems in Tayen Lane Publishing’s Poems from Conflicted Hearts anthology alongside poet laureate Alice Shapiro. Several poems in her newest collection first appeared in several magazines and anthologies this past year, including Common Ground Review and the publications presented by Damselfly Press and Purple Passion Press.

The Starling’s Song was written entirely during a four-week-long stay in a rustic cabin in the remote forests of Northern California, where this unique backdrop guided much of her work in this collection. Heralded as the “daughter of California’s wild places” by Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference executive director and author Karen Lewis, Bruce’s work continues to inspire nature-mindedness in readers and bestow them with her known lyricism and image-centric verse.

Echoing the nuances of her 2014 International Book Awards and USA Best Book Awards finalist recipient, The Weight of Snow, Bruce’s newest chapbook features thirty-five new poems exploring the arching themes of love, loss, and what it means to be human.

Bruce is available for interviews and appearances. For booking presentations, media appearances, interviews, and/or book signings contact bribruceproductions@gmail.com