Deerbrook Editions

Prayers to Mythos & Other Poems
Jim Glenn Thatcher
6 x 9 paperback
80 pages
ISBN: 978-1-734883-1-1
18.00
available now

preview Prayers to Mythos 

Jim Glenn Thatcher is a high school dropout with a BA in History, considerable graduate work in Modern Intellectual History, and an MFA in Creative Writing. A freelance writer with work in many papers, he was a Contributing Writer at Maine Times, the initial reviews editor at The Café Review, and for two years a monthly columnist for Maine In Print (while it still was in print). His poetry has appeared in, among others, The Puckerbrush Review, Poetry Miscellany, The Contemporary Review, Stolen Island Review, and  number of issues of both Animus and The Café Review. His chapbook, The Ur-Word, was published in 2008 by Moon Pie Press. He has been shortlisted for a Martin Dibner Fellowship, a semi- finalist for a Philip Roth writing residency at Bucknell, and a semi-finalist in both the 2014 and 2015 Paumanok Poetry competitions. Over the past nine years he has won two First Prizes for individual poems and eight Honorable Mentions (two of which were short-listed for First), all from New Millennium Writings. His book Lesser Eternities (Deerbrook Editions, 2017), was named a Finalist for the 2018 Maine Literary Award in Poetry.

New Book of Poetry

In Prayers to Mythos, we meet a wise and talented poet who, like Joseph Campbell, knows that transforming the self and the world first requires one to transform the myths that inform that world and self. In the “Mythopoeia” tradition of Blake, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis, Thatcher asks us in the title poem, to “Let the old myths perish, let the new myths rise—/Rise again within us, O Mythos, Reveal thy self as our Selves.” This book of poetry then is ambitious and a transcript of his journey to reimagine the mythos of himself and his world. Often, the language is incantatory and shamanic, and the visions experienced are that of a true mystic. Read this book, then, as a field guide for how you, too, might reimagine your life and world; but read it mostly for the poems’ trifecta of wisdom, gravitas, and beauty!  —Dennis Camire, Author, Combed by Crows; Founder Portland Poet Laureate Programs.

Praise for Thatcher’s First Collection

Jim Glenn Thatcher’s works exude not only the senses of time and nature but also those of reason. I first read him two years ago and instantly waved myself in as an admirer. His poems have broadband vision & sympathies, a maddening facility with language and a verse technique for seeing and reporting the world as it is. He has an irony that has outgrown egotism; a willingness to confront the tragedies of history without casting oneself (or anyone else) into a permanent tragic role. He has a gift for making the moment full and honoring its ancestry.

Thatcher brilliantly articulates the comitragedy of our human situation, from which meaning must be constantly won. We hold up what we know with what we still do not know.  —Ted Bookey, author of Mixty Motions

Jim Glenn Thatcher’s mystical, yet earthy poems are among the most moving I’ve encountered. He has an understated way of telling stories in poems that reveal profound insights into nature and the wonder of the cosmos, while remaining rooted in human experience. His striving for excellence rings in every line, as does his interest in folks rural and cosmopolitan alike. He writes honestly, organically, and lovingly about them  all, often with a darkly lyrical touch I find irresistible.  —Don Williams, writer, founder and editor emeritus of New Millennium Writings

Jim Glenn Thatcher is the high priest of cosmic embrace. He’s a man singing to winter stars. His language takes us through endless space, and then points out the microbes and dust motes within it. These poems celebrate the sacred in leaf, lichen and light year. Thatcher does not deny the darkness, but looks through it to find awe. And awe is one of the greatest gifts poetry has for us.

—Betsy Sholl, author of House of Sparrows