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Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word & Image
The sky is made of rivers before and after they became rivers, Caryn writes in Chasing Weather. Weather subtly shapes our days, infuses our moods and interactions, and at times, completely re-orients our lives. Catching moments of stunning beauty and surprising shifts in the sky helps make the vibrant and variable world more visible to us, and shows us how to truly see where and who we are.
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 2014
13 people want to read
About the author
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
34 books28 followersCaryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the Poet Laureate of Kansas, and the author or editor of 24 books, including her new book How Time Moves: New and Selected Poems (Meadowlark Press). Some of her other books include Chasing Weather (Ice Cube Press); the novels Miriam's Well (Ice Cube Press) and The Divorce Girl (Ice Cube Press); non-fiction Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds and Found Each Other (University of Nebraska Press); memoirs Everyday Magic (Meadowlark Press), The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community & Coming Home to the Body (Ice Cube Press).
Founder of Transformative Language Arts –social and personal transformation through the written, spoken and sung word (TLANetwork.org), Mirriam-Goldberg leads writing workshops widely, and coaches and consults with people and groups on creativity. With singer Kelley Hunt, she co-writes songs, she offers Brave Voice retreats (BraveVoice.com), and with storyteller Laura Packer, Your Right Livelihood trainings for writers, artists, changemakers, and more (YourRightLivelihood.com).
Founder of Transformative Language Arts –social and personal transformation through the written, spoken and sung word (TLANetwork.org), Mirriam-Goldberg leads writing workshops widely, and coaches and consults with people and groups on creativity. With singer Kelley Hunt, she co-writes songs, she offers Brave Voice retreats (BraveVoice.com), and with storyteller Laura Packer, Your Right Livelihood trainings for writers, artists, changemakers, and more (YourRightLivelihood.com).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 3, 2020
I am not sure what it is but so far everything lately that is suppose to be art-based just really hasn't been hitting my attention right. Although I can see the promise that is there I am just dumbfounded still how some can consider it art or even highly praised art at that.
This book is a combination of weather photographs, captions giving information about those particular photos and a poem. Sometimes that isn't a bad combination but in this case I couldn't see where the poetry related to two-thirds of the book and so it really seemed quite disjointed to me to be leaping from nonfictional photography then to something so abstract as the thoughts and memories the poet was trying to convey. And on those pages where the font didn't even pop from the photograph just really made me want to throw the book down for who wants to translate something that does't even tie in?
In my opinion I think the book would have done a better job if it had made up its mind and focused on one subject. Be a book of poetry without the captions or throw those captions in the back for the curious. Or even better yet just remove the poetry and allow the captions to be the writing on the next page or even better yet just add more photographs.
The poetry seemed mostly Kansas-based with the exceptions of a few spots and the photographs are also mostly Kansas-based but with a few other states thrown in for good measure. So definitely not a local book by any standard.
The most outstanding part of this book, though, has to be the photography itself. The colors are beautiful when they were captured, the images positioned in just the right frame and the magnificence of some of these big bad storms is just breathtaking. It will remind the readers that we are just a part of the environment in which we are growing and living in but at the same time we are quite insignificant.
All in all if you like storm photographs this may be a good once-over for you but otherwise to me there isn't much else here to have me strongly recommend this book to others.
This book is a combination of weather photographs, captions giving information about those particular photos and a poem. Sometimes that isn't a bad combination but in this case I couldn't see where the poetry related to two-thirds of the book and so it really seemed quite disjointed to me to be leaping from nonfictional photography then to something so abstract as the thoughts and memories the poet was trying to convey. And on those pages where the font didn't even pop from the photograph just really made me want to throw the book down for who wants to translate something that does't even tie in?
In my opinion I think the book would have done a better job if it had made up its mind and focused on one subject. Be a book of poetry without the captions or throw those captions in the back for the curious. Or even better yet just remove the poetry and allow the captions to be the writing on the next page or even better yet just add more photographs.
The poetry seemed mostly Kansas-based with the exceptions of a few spots and the photographs are also mostly Kansas-based but with a few other states thrown in for good measure. So definitely not a local book by any standard.
The most outstanding part of this book, though, has to be the photography itself. The colors are beautiful when they were captured, the images positioned in just the right frame and the magnificence of some of these big bad storms is just breathtaking. It will remind the readers that we are just a part of the environment in which we are growing and living in but at the same time we are quite insignificant.
All in all if you like storm photographs this may be a good once-over for you but otherwise to me there isn't much else here to have me strongly recommend this book to others.
February 7, 2021
Enjoyed the photos and all the prose very much. A wonderful combination. Such as "To climb back up from the basement where we waited for the storm to pass so we can brew some tea, take in the carnival glass bowl of the sunset, saved again,......" "....the cranes stenciling all the trees that turn light into something else......", ".....exposed dirt ages in the wind...:, and "....The windows shake in the storm that can pick up a field, undress it, place it back down. " There is a lot about weather in this book, but really so much more - life and lives lived.
October 22, 2025
(4.5) This is a book full of pictures of weather taken in the Midwest and under the pictures is a caption of Stephen Locke, the photographer's experience during each picture. The imagery is vivid and breathtaking. The shots he was able to get are wow. Along with each picture is a poem written by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. The poems are written in free verse and can be abstract. I didn't think the poems matched the imagery/captions so I read them separately and liked it better. The imagery was my favorite part of the book.
January 2, 2016
Entrancing poems and photographs are paired to deeply thoughtful effect. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is a notable local author and Kansas Poet Laureate from 2009-2013. Stephen Locke is a photographer based in Kansas City; his weather photos celebrate the Great Plains.
June 27, 2016
The photography makes this book. While the poems are a nice touch, I would have loved more pictures. Another plus the photographer & author live in Kansas!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews