Star Chaser

by Mark Scheel, Joseph Maino (Illustrations)

"These humans, who chase after the stars, are called poets." Mark Scheel's Star Chaser is "a creative burst exploring the relationships among ancient legend, the life cycle, the autobiographical and modern day angst." Divided into three "Yesterday," "Today" and "Tomorrow," this division signifies the reality all of us must confront living our lives. In the first section, the poem "Merging" might be seen as symbolizing conception as well as foreshadowing both young adulthood and growth. In the second section, "Today," we begin to see the initiation of another phase of life and a shifting of the zeitgeist. In the first poem, "Prairie Idyl," Scheel briefly alludes to the passing of his youth, the slow deterioration of rural America and the ultimate loss of his mother and a link to his own mortality. In the poem "This New Dawning," we begin to see a grim acceptance and a fear of the future after the shock of the events of 9/11. Another poem, "Coming Home from Iraq," is more stark and bleak as it envisions the implications of war, "the cold, polished marble of death." However, as all of us are coming to know, the world today is fraught with peril. The third section, "Tomorrow," presents us with both a perspective of looking back and looking ahead. Such bogeymen as retirement, aging, disease, terrorists and the great abyss of death all raise their frightening heads, yet there's also a counterbalance of hope for lasting love and internal peace. Such is the scope and beauty of Star Chaser. While Mr. Scheel may still deem himself poetically a "star chaser," it is clear that, like the Northern Lights themselves, he has illuminated our horizon with a book of poetry that transcends the emotionally empty and hollow halls of academe and reaches out, longingly and lovingly, to grasp and finally catch those faraway stars. -Glen Enloe, author of When Cowboys Rode Away.

80 pages, Hardcover

Published July 29, 2020

About the author

Mark Scheel was born and raised on a farm in rural, east-central Kansas. After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1967, and spending a period "on the road," he served overseas with the American National Red Cross in Vietnam, Thailand, Germany and England. He later took graduate studies and taught at Emporia State University and worked briefly as a movie stand-in. More recently he was an information specialist with the Johnson County Library in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and a member of the board of directors of Potpourri Publications Company. He now writes full time, represented by the Metamorphosis Literary Agency, and has served as a volunteer on the editorial staff of Kansas City Voices magazine. His stories, articles and poems have appeared in numerous magazines such as Kansas Quarterly, The Midwest Quarterly, Cincinnati Poetry Review and The Kansas City Star, and he is coauthor of the book OF YOUTH AND THE RIVER: THE MISSISSIPPI ADVENTURE OF RAYMOND KURTZ, SR. His book A BACKWARD VIEW: STORIES AND POEMS won the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award from the Kansas Authors Club. His blog series "The Pebble" was collected in the 2015 book THE PEBBLE: LIFE, LOVE, POLITICS AND GEEZER WISDOM and his fiction collection, AND EVE SAID YES: SEVEN STORIES AND A NOVELLA, appeared from Waldorf Publishing in 2019. His next book, the poetry collection STAR CHASER from Anamcara Press, launched in the summer of 2020. His most recent book is the novel THE POTTER'S WHEEL from Clarendon House Publications (2021). Other selections from his writing can be found online at commongroundnews.org and Mises.org as well as http://www.kotn.org/poetry/index.html and https://www.kansaspoets.com/uploads/1... . Additional biographical information is available online at LinkedIn and in WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA.

Reviews

[Ronda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scheel's Star Chaser collection is an eclectic mix of themes and styles, ranging from prose poems and free verse to a sonnet variation and haiku, that address love, war, nature, myth, death and the cycle of life. The poems often present multilayered interpretations, such as 'P.O.W.' which describes battlefield captives yet implies soldiers who experience intense combat become 'P.O.W.s' psychologically the rest of their lives. And the photo illustrations of Joseph Maino add a richness and depth of meaning to the words, like the photo accompanying a 9/11 poem showing a small boy building Lego towers and smashing them with a toy plane. However, humor is often also present, like the comparison of Wall Street to an outhouse! For poetry lovers who appreciate variety and well-crafted verse, Star Chaser is an excellent choice.

[Tom Mach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think most good poetry books are autobiographical in some way, and Scheel's Star Chaser is no exception. He divides his poetry into three sections, the past, the present, and the future. In his "past" section he recalls memories such as his Christmas as a boy and an August night on a little Kansas farm. His "present" focuses heavily on the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The "future" suggests what might be. It’s in this last section that I find an outstanding poem called "Tethered Balloons' where he suggests that we are like balloons "held by threads of grace", where "we bob and waft on an air of roars and whispers." I also enjoyed "The Season of Believers" especially where he included a parable about a youth being taken in by a con man. His poem "I Sleep With the Dead" is written in a style that is reminiscent to me of the way Walt Whitman would write it. Being an award-winning poet myself, I can say Scheel's poetry is worth reading, more than once.

[Melanie Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of poems divided into three sections. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. It covers many things. They all tie in with the theme of facing reality. Many don't want to face reality but we must. Nothing stays the same.
I love this book! Beautifully written and a variety of topics, this book is a keeper. I found this collection reaching inside my mind, heart and soul. It seemed Mr. Scheel was reading my thoughts. These poems make you think. They make you wonder. I will always have this copy to re-read over and over. Time for you to get your copy of this amazing book,

I didn't find any issues in this one.

I gave this one 5 cheers out of 5 because it is such a treasure. The author provided a copy of the book but I chose to review it.

[Margo Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all pursue the stars on our own, and author Mark Scheel has given us a glimpse of his own pathway through the universe in Star Chasers. His search has taken him from August Night (the little Kansas farm with the creek beside the corn rows) to Soldier's Christmas (a Viet Cong battalion staging a night river crossing) and back again to The Gardener (you've never possessed a green thumb). Does Scheel find the star he is chasing? In Star Chasers, Scheel invites the reader to share his journey.