Music from Apartment 8

Poet and cardiologist John Stone is a man of many voices. A gifted verse maker, he exhibits in his writing the qualities of a compassionate physician, a musician, linguist, naturalist, and down-to-earth yet whimsical grandfather, son, husband, and brother. Selections from his four previous books together with twenty-two new works compose this exquisite volume, a best of the best sampling from a beloved poet, a delicious treat for readers who know Stone and those yet to meet him. Stone's new poems include humorous and sometimes tough adventures with his ninety-five-year-old mother (she makes the music that wafts from Apartment 8), an exciting sequence drawn from a felicitous yet daunting trip to the Middle East, and reflections on growing up in Mississippi and Texas. Earlier works show Stone immersed in his sons' soccer practice, teaching, attending at the bedside of patients, and sometimes simply turning his attention toward the everyday. He is a poet who hears, and speaks, every language of the heart.