Exodus: A Collection of Poems

by Wil Price

Exodus is a book of poems reflecting on the searching and freedom found in travel. Wil Price's poetry is inspired by his own traveling of Central America and the southeastern United States. The majority of the poetry was written during a brief hermitage on a ranch in Alabama. Price's verse explores the abstractions of loneliness and togetherness with contemplations on anything from road signs to campfires. Portions of the book are written in Spanish, but more than the majority of the text is in English. The title "EXODUS" is obviously referring to the Biblical Narrative of the Hebrew exodus out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. However, considering the heavy handed nature of this allusion, the Biblical imagery is not nearly as pervasive as you might consider, but rather the Biblical themes throughout rely on the archetypal notion of going from slavery to freedom supplemented by some Biblical imagery and language. The correlation between physical mobility and social mobility (and even spiritual mobility) is brought well into consideration by Price's reflection on travel. However, in all the movement there is an exploration of the stillness, a hope for certitude in a world of flimsy artifice, and a movement away from what we have known and towards what we may know, or as Price posits towards an ability to see "with clarity."

41 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2021