Donelle Dreese is an Associate Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. She is the author of two collections of poetry, A Wild Turn (Finishing Line) and Looking for A Sunday Afternoon (Pudding House). Donelle is also the author of a YA vignette novella Dragonflies in the Cowburbs (Anaphora Literary) and the novel Deep River Burning (WiDo Publishing). She serves as Assistant Editor for the Journal of Kentucky Studies.

Books by Donelle Dreese:

Other poems on the web by Donelle Dreese:
Three poems
Two poems
"Rachel Carson's Ghost"
"Almonds"
"Dark Chocolate"

Donelle Dreese on Twitter.

About Sophrosyne:

"In this profound collection Donelle Dreese intertwines the fruits of the earth with our daily existence as well as with the celestial spheres. Throughout these tender poems we are reminded to care for the seed / as we might cradle a beating heart. This book is deeply spiritual, revealing the goodness of those who shine a light on us by their personal experience. It illuminates the humility of the soul, and the silver cord that connects / the physical body pain-embossed / to the golden bowl of the cosmos. This superbly crafted book will fill your heart."
—Marguerite Bouvard

"The poems in Donelle Dreese's Sophrosyne examine what it means to be human in a world of beauty, complexity, and abundance, but one also infected, disconnected, and genetically modified. Her poems are threaded with passion, tenderness, reverence, and wonder that rub up against raw truth, and the need for pruning what doesnt nourish us and claiming what does. These poems examine lifes dualities: creation and collapse, light and dark, health and dysfunction, where we're going / where we've been. She takes us into the forest, deep space, bodies of water, and our own bodies; invites us to slow down, question, dream, connect to each other and the natural world—to start with the crust and work our way toward the center . . . so we taste it all."
—Karen George

"Kindness, love, and deeper understanding stream from every word in this life-affirming work of subtle and supple spirituality. Nature and love (in every meaning of this word) take center stage: God is a florist, dogwood-making, pollen-depositing. We, the readers, slow down and feel, listen, take the time to be ourselves and to hear all that we need to know about the world inside and around us. Have you seen your knees lately? —asks the author, pointing our attention to our bodies and adds that The body is a piano that will sing / if you press all the right keys. Read this book. It will purify and bless your senses."
—Katerina Stoykova-Klemer