After a series of award-winning books on environment and climate, Gus Speth turned his attention to poetry and essays, and Working Hard To Dream is his sixth volume of poems and light verse. The poems in this volume fall roughly into three categories. The largest collection are poems addressing the beauty and the challenges of everyday life and living, our presence in the world. "These must be mature reflections," Speth said recently. "Hell, I'm 83." A second group continues to build on his commitment to deep transformational change in our society; many are poems of protest. And, grasping for relief, the final group are humorous but, as Speth says, "seriously funny." "Without pretension or decoration, these poems speak to the heart. Lush images mix with honesty and humor. Life, climate, it's all here. Take in these poems." Ina Anderson, author of Sky Furniture: Poems "Speth's poetic style and structure vary, from spare, sometimes wry, free verse to rhyming quatrains. He brings an eye for telling detail and a unique outlook to well-known topics... everyday life, milestones both triumphant and tragic, and musings on politics, history, aging and forgiveness." The (VT-NH) Valley News Gus Speth, a writer of non-fiction and poetry, retired not long ago as dean of the Yale School of the Environment and as professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School. Previously, he served in the United Nations and in the Administration of Jimmy Carter, and he helped to found the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the World Resources Institute (WRI), both of which, he says, flourished after he left. He is a fellow at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the Democracy Collaborative, and the Tellus Institute. Speth and his wife Cameron (Cece) and their dogs Folly and Callie divide their time between central Vermont and coastal South Carolina and will continue doing so as long as he and the dogs can hop in and out of the car.
