Charlotte Renk-Poet

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Solidago: An Altar to Weeds

Solidago is a metaphoric scratchboard that turns into an illuminated manuscript. Charlotte's concept of using weeds as a focusing device is inspired; we overlook and dismiss them, diminish their value. Charlotte, though, makes us look through the darkness of the background, makes us scratch for meaning, and assures us, again and again, there is always something to be admired, always something that is green.
Alan Lee BirkelbachPoet Laureate of Texas, 2005

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With an incantatory voice one would expect from a shaman, the poet of these poems leads the reaaer through a contemporary inferno of existential angst, betrayal, abuse, homophobia, the undying love and horrors of familial relationships, and promise unfulfilled, only to redeem that reader with the splendors and unfathomable mysteries of the natural world teeming at their fingertips.
LARRY D. THOMAS, 2008 Texas Poet LaureateAuthor of New and Selected Poems (TCU Press 2008)

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I don't think I've ever come across such a rich, magnificent poetic voice; your images are incomparable, your language fresh and exciting, your subject matter deep, poignant and sweet... l'm reeling from the genius-this manuscript cries out to be set loose on the world.
SUSAN RANGLACK, 2008 JudgeEdwin M. Eakin Memorial Book Publication Award

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Rich with allusion and breadth of subject matter, these poems not only plunge the reader immediately into the actual lives of turtles but also transport that reader into the complex emotions and yearnings of human beings. Few contemporary poets illuminate the nuances of human relationships with the clarity and insight of Charlotte Renk.
LARRY D. THOMAS, 2008 Texas Poet LaureateAuthor of New and Selected Poems (TCU Press 2008)