The poems in "The Weave Room "reveal the life of a textile mill as it weathers a decisive social and human moment. Whether speaking in the voice of a weaver trying to quell a crowd about to turn violent over unionization or in his own voice as one of the mill's employees, Chitwood brings together many social and historical threads to show the pattern of a people and a place that has received little treatment in American poetry.

This new collection of lyric poetry uses the idea of the "threshold moment" as its central metaphor. Chitwood's threshold moments can be anything from the instant when a rock being held up by a frozen pond melts through and makes its plunge to the moment when a child realizes his childhood is lost forever. The poems demonstrate that these moments can bring about changes for either better or worse. Chitwood describes this collection as a hymn to both the joy and loss that can be found in these transitional moments.

Advance praise: Andrew Hudgins says, "No book about happiness has made me half as happy as I was made by POOR-MOUTH JUBILEE, Michael Chitwood's sublime book about sorrow. Chitwood gives sorrow all its due respect - and no more, so the book is often laugh-out funny in its wisdom. POOR-MOUTH JUBILEE pulses with the exhilaration of being alive." And Sydney Lea says, "At a time when 'religion' is too often misrepresented by literalists and scorekeepers, all through Poor-Mouth Jubilee we're reminded that genuine belief (and doubt) resists the sound bite. The moment we try to articulate a thing as...

In Search and Rescue: Poems, Michael Chitwood gives us accessible, lively, and touching poetry. Chitwood has a gift for syntax and offers touching descriptions of the natural world, life experiences, and spirituality. He moves effortlessly from ideas as varied as exploring what it is to be a child to how water works. Chitwood gives us a world we know yet seldom see: the world as it is.