Graven Images, Poems

The introspective poems of "Graven Images" do not always honor mankind (God-Men) or womankind (Goddess-Women), but recognizes men and women as only being human. Women and men share a propensity to commit a varied assortment of human (inhuman) acts. These acts often arise from self-deception, self-appreciation and self-love. The author taps into his feminine side to present different perspectives, but recognizes that the human animal is just difficult to understand. Mike Sutin is a commercial lawyer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and serves as pro-bono counsel to PEN New Mexico and the New Mexico Book Association. His poems have appeared in local, regional, and national small presses, and anthologies. His first book, "Voices from the Corner/Voces del Rincon," a unique one-person anthology, greeted with critical acclaim, is a poetic investigation into idiosyncrasies gathered from the corners of complex Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo interrelationships in New Mexico. An astute observer of the human condition, his insights into Santa Fe's societal and cultural life cycles continued in his second book "Naked Ladies on the Road" (Sunstone Press, 2005), a poetic study of the City Different's celebrated Canyon Road. Recognition of Mike's position as a major lawyer-poet in the United States is evidenced by his inclusion in "Off the Record," a poetry anthology of the Legal Studies Forum, representing the first effort of a United States legal journal to devote an entire issue to poetry. A member of the Santa Fe Live Poets' Society, he has lived in New Mexico since 1946. An adherent to the old school of meter and rhyme, his poems are full of sharp, witty lines, sometimes deceptively complex, with candor, power and poignancy, often illuminating the glorious absurdities of our lives.