Lies I've Heard or Told

Lies I've Heard or Told  is the fourteenth collection of poems published by Michael Poage. He was born in Virginia but has lived and traveled across the U.S. as well as Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, and Mexico. In 1973 he earned an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Montana, studying with Madeline DeFrees and Richard Hugo. In 2017-18, he was the Poet-in-Residence at Dzemal Bijedic University in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the academic year, 2021-22, he taught English literature and usage virtually at Walailak University, Thailand. He lives in Wichita, Kansas with his wife, the scholar, professor, and activist, Dr. Gretchen Eick. 

LIES I'VE HEARD OR TOLD is on the outside a small book, but on the inside it stretches from Kansas to Scotland to Bosnia and back again. Poage is an acute observer and an unusually cosmopolitan writer-he is the wise man to whom the whole universe is his home city. His poems are nuanced and precise, at times funny, at times heartbreaking-but true throughout. I suggest buying two copies of this book because you are sure to tell someone else they have to read it and then to press your own copy into their hands. 

- George Franklin

"Michael Poage's fourteenth poetry collection, LIES I'VE HEARD OR TOLD is a startling experience. It's a compact piece with specific elements that stand out and touch on a vast range of subjects. Poage spent a year in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Poet-in-Residence at Dzemal Bijedic University in Mostar. Hence, his book is partly coloured by the bright colours of the Mediterranean. His poems also have certain dark undertones. This is why one of the most striking pieces in the book is certainly "PansionStari Grad," where he addresses a brightly lit woman, an image that might be described as a lyrical re-enactment of Edward Hopper's Morning Sun (1965). His poems can be expressively and humorously political as well as reflections on family relationships. There is nothing shallow here and, especially with the experimental poems, he invites the reader's imagination to his various levels of poetic exploration." 

-- Mirko Bozic (Mostar, 1982) is a poet, novelist, and literary critic.