Bags and Tools Poems

What is compelling about Bags and Tools is its reach for a “we.” The “we” was open enough and varied enough to encompass a wide swath of people(s) but did not assume a sameness—indeed, it sought in part to elucidate the matter of difference through questioning—it is nuanced and insightful. Much of this author’s work is the same, plain-spoken, but upon reading it presents its concerns. What is in the bag of the speaker who presents themself as a would-be vagabond, a wayward traveler? A curious mind, a passionate search for a larger framework (God, Love) through what the reader could think of as letters to beloveds as much as dedications where names are cited. This is a book to read again, then again. It is the speaker’s trying that is so relatable. The skein is thin here, so author and speaker are close. Michael Fleming effectively uses the tools of craft to take us along on this narrow path that widens and promises to open into broad understanding.

Michael Fleming was born in San Francisco, raised in Wyoming, and has lived and learned and worked all around the world, from Thailand, England, and Swaziland to Berkeley, New York City, and now Brattleboro, Vermont. He’s been a teacher, a grad student, a carpenter, a musician, and always a writer; for the past twenty years he has edited books of every description.