Zephyr

By Mary Mullen (Salmon Poetry, $19.95)

The blurb: Born in Anchorage, raised in Soldotna and now living in Ireland, this collection includes poems by Mary Mullen that are about each of those places as well as her experience as a single mother and her daughter's life with Down Syndrome.

Excerpt: "Icy hoses blasted fish guts

down the slime-line

to us cannery girls

who were high-styling it

in our brightly coloured bandanas

blue jeans able to stand by themselves --

a white oilcloth apron

which made us look like birthday candles --

and sometimes, mascara."

Meeting the Enemy: A Marine Goes Home

By Suel D. Jones (BookSurge Publishing, $25.99)

The blurb: Now a Palmer resident, Suel D. Jones recounts his experience in Vietnam and the disillusionment he felt upon returning home to the U.S.

Excerpt: "I returned to the U.S. thinking Vietnam was behind me; now, some twenty-six years later, I found myself in the lobby of a veterans' hospital asking for directions for the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder unit. I would be undergoing treatment for the next month. Even though I had been seeing a counselor through a Vet Center in Palmer, Alaska, I felt small and even a bit silly standing in this spit-and-polished veterans' hospital. I felt like a fake and a liar being there."

From the Sleep of Waters

By Richard Lewis, artwork by Susan Joy Share (Touchstone Center Publications, $10)

The blurb: Based on their original theatrical collaboration at the American Museum of Natural History, this book by poet Richard Lewis and book-artist Susan Joy Share is a rendering of Aphrodite's birth.

Excerpt: "From the sleep of waters, a dream begins.

Sun moving its breath from the sky.

Moon moving its breath upon the earth.

Night and the washing of darkness.

Night and the touching of stars."