Places I Was Dreaming is a study in poetic tone and the function of story that introduces us to a plucky boy living in rural poverty. The book follows him from preschool through his third grade winter, showing us his life in an extended family of storytellers in which everyone talks at the same time and the lack of money is an ever-present threat that even a child cannot help but be aware of. The boy approaches difficulty through "kid-logic" — seemingly rational but incorrect conclusions about what he sees, and his attitude is by turns stoic, uncomprehending, philosophical, and comic.
LOREN GRAHAM was raised in and around Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He studied as a writer and composer at Oklahoma Baptist University, Baylor University, and the University of Virginia. He received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2009 for poems that became part of Places I Was Dreaming. He currently lives in Helena, Montana, with his wife, Jane Shawn.
Through the perspective of a seemingly personal, but private, persona, Graham traces the formative stages in the life of a boy growing up in the depressed and depressing environment of the American southwest in the late twentieth century and of finding himself in places he was dreaming, as he says in "Sleepwalking." These are themes and poems that will resonate with many readers.
Loren Graham's new book of poems, like its two predecessors, tells the truth, plainly and directly, while at the same time with a poetic craftsmanship that gives emotional weight and depth to every line. Such a combination is rare indeed and much needed in these days when there are too many shallow if not completely hollow poems being written here, there, and almost everywhere. The truth it tells is often painful, filled with humiliation and misunderstanding, but brought to life with both honesty and love. Another rare combination. It is everything that I had expected of Graham, and more.