Local author Mike Katko with his new book, ‘Runt Heaven, Poets and Poetry’, which features poetry and short tributes to the poets who have made a difference. Courtesy photo

COMMUNITY News:

With his second book of poetry, Runt Heaven, local author Mike Katko delivers a series of poems that bridge the space between the real and the unreal. It presents a view of the poet as a timeless wanderer, one who connects with the spiritual world while also delving into the whimsical realm of time travel and the poet’s boundless, free-roaming imagination.

Grief and reflections on education in the 1970s add depth to the emotional landscape painted by Katko’s lyrical prowess. With aerial acrobatics and heartfelt sentiments, Runt Heaven offers a poignant exploration of the human experience through the lens of poetry.

Katko drew inspiration from the poets he had admired throughout his life, from his Native American great-grandmother and his father’s Hungarian roots to the significant historical and cultural shifts regarding our American experience.

Runt Heaven effectively demonstrates the meaning and importance of spirit in all living things and the interconnection between them. Themes within the thirty explore a wide range, from writing, uncertainty, broken dreams, silence, troubled sleep, and illuminated grief to ancient Greek scandals, river walks, poetry, young love, ancestral knowledge, love and loss, soldiers’ memories, reciprocity with the natural world, curiosity about the future, and creative fertility – all fueled by wonder.

Katko is a former teacher and principal for the Santa Fe, Española, Los Alamos and Pojoaque schools.

“Through his eclectic poetic form, Mike Katko evokes sentient images with wit and sensitivity. Mike offers humor, love, sadness, nostalgia, innocence, and wonder to entice the reader into another time and place, into the essential human experience.” —Noel Gill, U.S. Forest Service, Silver City, New Mexico.

“Poetry that is blooming. Beautiful and polished to its essence.” —Dr. Jaiya John, Soulwater.org, Los Angeles, Calif.

Runt Heaven is taking orders for autographed paperback copies at MikeKatko.com. The book launch tour stops next at the Literary Fest sponsored by Los Alamos Arts Council May 10. Print and eBook copies will be available at future events and on Amazon.