James P. Lenfestey

...is the author of three previous collections of poems, plus a collection of personal essays, The Urban Coyote: Howlings on Family, Community, and the Search for Peace and Quiet, published by Nodin Press. He is a former editorial writer at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he won several Page One awards for excellence. He is he founder of the Ojai Poetry Festival in California and Mackinac Island Poetry Festival in Michigan and chairs the Literary Witnesses poetry program in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
coyotepoet.com

James P. Lenfestey's The Toothed and Clever World is an absolute joy. In these finely crafted poems, he takes us to a deeper circuitry and reminds us again that the world is strung with embraces.
—Robert Hedin

Skillful nature poems that chart a pleasantly meandering course from
Michigan to California.
—StarTribune

Excerpt from
The Toothed and Clever World—

RAIN

Overnight, the thirsty ground

received its answer. Morning sun

cannot erase the smiles on these hills.

Puddles collected in the dips

of road along the ridge

resemble fallen silver coins.

Olive and rosemary branches

wave ecstatic, glistening arms

in valley breeze.

Here in the bedroom, rain kept us

under the covers longer than usual.

Long enough to rekindle fires banked

months ago. With the work of patient

hands and hearts and backs

weakened by weeks of relaxed sleep,

The drought of pleasure slowly

lifts. The arid plain of love sprouts

delicious fruits and seeds.