Ragged Sky Press | A Palace of Ruins by Steve Nolan

From the mountains of Afghanistan, to the devastated cities of Ukraine, to the ransacked Capitol of the United States, Steve Nolan takes you on an intimate journey, a portrait of destruction and the human impulse to rise from the rubble to construct a new palace on the ruins of the last. Whether referencing civilization, government, or a single soul, his poetry pays tribute to those who manage to find treasure amongst the shards of a shattered individual life or the shattered dreams of history.

Praise for A Palace of Ruins

A Palace of Ruins, Steve Nolan’s new book from Ragged Sky Press is a power-packed autopsy of man’s inhumanity to man. With intelligence and courage, he shares experiences of pain, loss and death firsthand, yet we are left with the residue of hope. Altogether, this collection accomplishes what all great books do, it makes the greater poem. This book is a must read.

—Bill Wunder, author of Welcome to Paradise: New and Selected Poems

In the spirit of Wilfred Owen, Doug Anderson, and Carolyn Forché, Steve Nolan bears witness to the moral horrors of war, but also to courage and the regenerative human capacities for love, faith, even hope. Nolan’s voice is that of one who has “been there” and has returned to speak of it. While the truths he reports on are ones we’d often just as soon hold at a distance, what these poems show, over and over, is that empathy, civic commitment, and attention to human suffering whether at a remote location or close to home, enlarge us and give meaning to our existence on earth.

—Terry Culleton, author of A Tree and Gone

Please order this book through your favorite online retailer ISBN 978-1-93397455-2 / $18.00 US