Alan Geibe

Tender on the Wall Alan Geibe

Yesterday I danced on the head of a pin and smoked a camel through the eye of a needle The opening line of Alan Geibe's debut poetry collection in 2004, On the Corner of Mercy Street, left little doubt that a fresh and completely original, new voice had entered onto the scene of modern poetry. The collection, centered around the epic poem, "Mercy Street", and layered with scenes of haunting imagery, has been compared to the music of the 1960's, while leaning "toward the remarkable fantasy worlds of such writers as Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling," according to Steven LaVigne of White Crane Journal. In this, his second collection of poetry, Alan Geibe truly channels the rage and rebellion of the 1960's with a poignant introspective on the themes of war in life and love and as a nation. With two new chapters in the "Mercy Street" epic, and proclaiming that "I am these lost days" "I'm cutting this dog to the bone, howling and crawling to the sharpening stone," Geibe leads us into faith and reassurance that there is indeed "mercy, tender on the wall, mending hearts between love and war".