A Walk to the Center of Things Paperback - 2011

The poems have great affection for the feminine, and they are wonderfully patient with human confusion.
--Robert Bly

Nils Peterson's poems move with depth, authority, and the occasional grace-granting glint of humor as they travel through image, idea, and a deep storehouse of recollection both cultural and personal. A lifetime's attention to both writing and living buoys these intimate, intelligent, sometimes chastened, sometimes celebratory, but always compassionate pages.
--James Hirshfield

Niles Peterson is a poet who sets the world before us -- tangible and mysterious. With almost effortless craft and a superbly tuned ear for the music of language, he reveals the luminous within the everyday events of our lives. To use Sappho's words, he is an artisan of the "keen, clear song." Varied in subject and manner, his poems embody a deep pleasure and wonder in being alive, and they bring us into the company of a larger life.
--Joseph Stroud

About the author:

NILS PETERSON taught in the English and Humanities Departments at San Jose State University from 1963 to 1999. He was Coordinator of the Creative Writing Emphasis for more than 20 years, and served as Coordinator of the Creative Arts and Chair of the Humanities Department. He was chosen as Professor of the Year by the Student Honor Society.

He has published poems in many journals, has written science fiction, as well as articles on subjects as varying as golf and Shakespeare. A chapbook of poems entitled Here Is No Ordinary Rejoicing was published by No Deadlines Press, a collection of poems entitled The Comedy of Desire, with an introduction by Robert Bly, was published by the Blue Sofa Press and a collection of poems entitled Driving a Herd of Moose to Durango appeared in 2005.

He was not only a poetry consultant for San Jose State Studies but also an an editor for Discover America, a collection of poems celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of the USA, and a contributing editor to The Blue Sofa Review and Americas Review.

Nils was nominated for a 2005 Pushcart Prize.

He is one of the founding members of Poetry Center San Jose, and the first Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County.