DREAM WORK: New from Mind Harvest Press

Major announcement: Mind Harvest Press stretches its wings.

While founded as the principal outlet for my own literary projects, fledging upstart indie imprint MHP is now stoked to present its first publication penned by another author!

The Book:

Dream Work ($9.95, 130 pgs) represents the first collection of poetry from Columbia, South Carolina singer-songwriter and impresario R. Bentz Kirby. Speaking as editor, publisher, and friend to the author, I couldn’t be more proud about bringing his heartfelt, often heady words to the wider reading world.

Special gratitude goes out to cover designer Marc Cardwell, who brought his A game and produced an image (seen below) worthy of the twilight-time tone of many of the poems inside. We have a beautiful book on our hands here, and think many of you will agree.

Signed copies are available for immediate shipment by using this Paypal link (include your shipping address!). The book is also distributed through Ingram, so print and ebook editions are available right now on pretty much all platforms—iBooks, Nook, Kobo, B&N, Amazon.

The Jacket Copy:

Featuring forty-four poems covering more than forty years of creative output, this collection offers one author’s creative quest to describe his vision of the truth and beauty found while traversing the landscape both of the human soul and the natural world surrounding us, and perhaps even the world beyond this one.

That’s right: Kirby has been to the other side and back. After being clinically dead for several minutes following a 2012 Sudden Cardiac Arrest event, thanks to quick-acting loved ones, bystanders and EMT first responders, Bentz’s heartbeat resumed and allowed him to return to his normal, happy life—a small miracle.

And once he fully recovered his health, he found the experience of dying not only filled his soul with gratitude at getting another chance, but had also opened a portal of post-event creativity, as well as shedding new light and insight on earlier poems and songs he’d written.

With this slice of personal history in mind, Dream Work presents an amalgamation of work depicting less a “before and after” phase of one human’s life than a totality of experience, including the briefest of glimpses through the veil surrounding the eternally mysterious transition of human consciousness from life into death.

From the introduction by Worthy Evans: “These dreams and these journeys are indeed the poet’s. But gratefully, Bentz has written down these journeys, and they are boxes that are opened up—for us to look over, and maybe consider what our own journeys and dreams may reveal to us.”

Praise from fellow poets:

“R. Bentz Kirby announces his vision from his first poem, “Tribute to the Muse” like he is descending the steps of the Oracle of Delphi. And I hope you read each leaf of this tome with anticipation of enrichment for life, for understanding, for joy, and for knowledge, just as I have.” —John M. Starino, They Are Only Spoons, Onion Season

“In poems both musical and mystical, R. Bentz Kirby shakes us from our sleepwalk of everyday life with a consciousness that something deeper–a vibration of love–is at work in everything. As he writes, ‘The redemption comes in living and forgiving and helping the lonely soul who feels like you.’ These are poems of awakening for lonely souls who want to do more than dream. Bentz Kirby’s poetry begs us to pay attention.” —Cassie Premo Steele, Tongues in Trees: Poems 1994-2017

“There are wanderers who assume guises to get what they need to move forward, but Bentz Kirby is a seeker. He scans the ditches and fields for dreams, flowers, and fairies. He rides us along on a journey passing empty swing sets, ghosts, abandoned general stores, fluttering wonder, loss, and always, always thankfulness. ‘Like the barechested boy chasing the calf, in the newly turned fields, among the blossoming trees,’ these poems steer us to see a lyrical and redemptive world while capturing the difficulty of paths.” —Tim Conroy, Theologies of Terrain

“In his first poetry collection Bentz Kirby invites us to join him on a trip through the visions and memories of a backroad Southern life, filled with a landscape of images from the oft overlooked nuances and joys of daily existence, to the splendor found in ethereal fields of forever. “Dream Work” is a must read for all of us who have been down that road, made the journey and pondered taking the ride again.” —Marv Ward, One Lone Minstrel

“Dream Work is musician Bentz Kirby’s long overdue first book of poetry. Buy it, read it and get to know the child, son, lover, husband, father, lawyer, musician, poet, friend and the ‘dreams evicted from the garden.'” —Al Black, I Only Left for Tea

Bentz Kirby’s poems show beautiful natural images and specific details of his life, putting you with him as he travels down the highway, on roads both physical and metaphoric. He makes the reader think about the journey of his and her own life, and this inspiration moves us to contemplation. Very enjoyable! —Lynn Stowers