The Stone Circle Poems: The Collected Poems of Terry Wooten

Terry Wooten created Stone Circle near Elk Rapids, Michigan in his early years as a poet.  Stone Circle grew as a Midwestern destination as Wooten’s poetry flourished.  Now, in his mid-sixties, Wooten is a living legend on the Midwest arts scene, and his Stone Circle is a cherished institution which draws its audience from across the region and beyond.

  “Wooten’s writing shows us a deeper meaning and mystery inherent in the physical. If he measures the world too much with poetry, as his sixth-grade daughter complained, his perspective is none-the-less deeply healing and counter-culture, showing us our lives are ripe with meaning. In his poetry we are natural in a natural world.”
 
                  --Rose Bohn, poet and professor of English, Penn State University
 
 
“We created language to tell our stories. I have always subscribed to the notion that words should attempt to remain invisible behind the story they carry. Terry Wooten’s words are pure. His poems share wonderment, the connections, the feelings, the triumph, the failures, the experiences, and the small miracles that make up our human existence.”
 
                  --Ben Mikaelsen, author of Touching Spirit Bear and Petey, Bozeman, Montana
 
 
“Stone Circle Poems is everything a collection of poetry should be: concentrated immortality, personal and universal, a time machine and a transportation device, bittersweet and fun. Terry Wooten’s work is, in a word, magical.”
 
                  --Daryth Davey, poet,  language and literature teacher,  Salvador da Bahia, Brazil
 
 
“For more than 40 years Wooten’s poems have radiated the vitality and preciousness of everyday existence while his dedication to the oral tradition has kept the flame of art burning brightly. This collection is a testament to a life well lived in the service of poetry.”
 
                  --Patrick Pfister, author of Pilgrimage: Tales of the Open Road, Barcelona, Spain
 
 
“Terry Wooten is truly a modern-day bard. Many a poet owes a legacy to him, myself included. Wooten’s voice is so indomitable that his poems sing out on the page, resonating with that very primal place inside a reader where one longs to gather with one’s tribe around a fire, and listen to the wisdom collected here. His poems inspire surprise and wonderment -  prepare to be delighted and awed.”
 
                  --Mi Ditmar, poet, creative writing instructor, Syracuse University and Mellon Grants Coordinator for the Central New York Humanities Corridor
 
 
“Terry Wooten is a fine poet in the tradition of Whitman and Williams. His work celebrates our history and our encounters with civilization. His poems show a humane and understanding heart, and a humor and wit that helps illuminate our daily lives.”
 
                  --Herb Scott, the late poet and professor of English, Western Michigan University

  “Wooten’s writing shows us a deeper meaning and mystery inherent in the physical. If he measures the world too much with poetry, as his sixth-grade daughter complained, his perspective is none-the-less deeply healing and counter-culture, showing us our lives are ripe with meaning. In his poetry we are natural in a natural world.”

“We created language to tell our stories. I have always subscribed to the notion that words should attempt to remain invisible behind the story they carry. Terry Wooten’s words are pure. His poems share wonderment, the connections, the feelings, the triumph, the failures, the experiences, and the small miracles that make up our human existence.”

“Stone Circle Poems is everything a collection of poetry should be: concentrated immortality, personal and universal, a time machine and a transportation device, bittersweet and fun. Terry Wooten’s work is, in a word, magical.”

“For more than 40 years Wooten’s poems have radiated the vitality and preciousness of everyday existence while his dedication to the oral tradition has kept the flame of art burning brightly. This collection is a testament to a life well lived in the service of poetry.”

 
“Terry Wooten is truly a modern-day bard. Many a poet owes a legacy to him, myself included. Wooten’s voice is so indomitable that his poems sing out on the page, resonating with that very primal place inside a reader where one longs to gather with one’s tribe around a fire, and listen to the wisdom collected here. His poems inspire surprise and wonderment -  prepare to be delighted and awed.”

“Terry Wooten is a fine poet in the tradition of Whitman and Williams. His work celebrates our history and our encounters with civilization. His poems show a humane and understanding heart, and a humor and wit that helps illuminate our daily lives.”

Collected poems of a Midwest naturalist-bard.