Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves

"Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves" gathers semi-autobiographical poetry about a boyhood and adult life lived in conversation with nature. In this volume, Sam describes a life shaped by his youth in Pennsylvania and Michigan and his journey by thumb through the Pacific Northwest. The imprint of these experiences molds his ecological holism and sense of the holiness of the commonplace and of all life.All profits to the author from the sale of this book will be donated to the Germanna Community College Educational Foundation.What other poets are saying about "Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves": "David Sam is a poet of deep identity with the natural world. In these intimate narratives of discovery and awe, the poems speak often with an almost breathless urgency, reminding us of the inexhaustible life within life, testaments to a unique sensitivity, in a boy and then a man. In journeys both actual and metaphorical, the self is not different than rivers or sunrise. 'I am made of water and wild air, ' one poem says. The lucky reader breathes deeply."- Allan Peterson, author of Fragile Acts and All the Lavish in Common"David Anthony Sam's poems are literally rooted in the earth, seeded in the rich, dark soil. Whether he's writing about childhood or the rivers of Pennsylvania, these poems are filled with fields, mountains, lakes, snow and stars; they remind us that human life is found in the morning air, in the golden rays of the rising sun, in a bird's call as dusk arrives. Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves is an impressive book that will transport you into the natural world where, as Sam writes, you will become 'forgetful and human again.'" - David James, author of She Dances Like Mussolini, winner of the 2010 Next Generation Indie book award in poetry
About the Author: David Anthony Sam was born and spent his childhood in McKeesport, PA, a coal and steel suburb of Pittsburgh. His home at the end of 36th Street abutted a woods, and the games he played on that street and the time he spent in those woods all influenced his poetry as well as his sense of the holistic ecology of all things. His neighborhood was filled with immigrants and children of immigrants, and his grandparents themselves came from Poland and Syria. In 1961, the family moved with his father's factory to Belleville, MI, a far suburb of Detroit. Small town life near a lake and the rural farm fields and woods within a short walk along the railroad tracks also appear in this volume of semiautobiographical verse. A first-generation college student and graduate of Eastern Michigan University and Michigan State University, Sam has taught creative writing, English literature, and composition at Eastern Michigan, Marygrove College, Oakland Community College, and Pensacola State College. He was partner/manager of Gondolier Music & Electronics from 1972-1985 in Belleville before moving into higher education as an administrator. With his wife and life partner, Linda, he lives now in Culpeper VA, still within sight of the eastern mountain chain. They have two children, Michelle and Ryan, and four grandchildren. Sam serves as president of Germanna Community College and persists in writing poetry.