From Chicago to Spinoza

"From Chicago to Spinoza" offers a biographical compilation of verse by author Robert Tosei Osterman, written from 1980 to 2010. It is a personal memoir, a collection of reminiscences describing people and places in his past.

"Chicago" illustrates the early years of Osterman's life during World War II. "Faces in the Past" is comprised of sonnets and other poems, depicting some of my coworkers at a school bus company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"The Emotional Past" exemplifies his feelings during the summer of 2000, just prior to his divorce in September of that year. "Illusions in eastern Iowa" contains images of his sojourn at a Zen Buddhist monastery, while the poems of "The Forest" were conceived during his many walks through Hixon Forest, located four miles east of the Mississippi River.

A few years ago Osterman moved his residence to a converted granary in a small rural community in western Wisconsin. "The Marsh" and "Transformations" share images that of this location. Finally, "The City" contains poems and descriptions assembled in his eighth-floor apartment in a small mid-western city.

"A Play in Three Acts" offers a mirthful entertainment inspired by the correspondence between Hugo Boxel and the seventeenth-century rationalist philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

In the pages of this collection, you'll find nostalgia, anecdotes, observations, and inspiration.