I’m 74 years old now and have started a new phase in my life. With the publication of The Whole Shebang, […]
A Four-Part Collection · Now Available
The
Whole Shebang
The Collected Poems of
James R. Van Laan
Four movements on life and survival, love and loss — a poet’s reckoning, written across a lifetime.
- Available Now
The Collection
Four Movements, One Long Listening
I.
Movement One
A Railing Against The Night
A defiant cry against death. A memorial to the people lost — and a celebration of the lives that touched the poet, changed him, made him who he is.
II.
Movement Two
Survival As The Whole Of Existence
The poet’s view of life — its complexities, its ironies, its pleasures and disappointments. A lyrical recognition of overcoming adversity. A celebration of survival.
III.
Movement Three
Hymns Of A Would-Be Lover
The hopes, dreams, and disappointments of love in every shape. Loves desired. Loves lost. The yearning, the fading, the despair — but always the dream of love.
IV.
Movement Four
NanSong
Poems written to the love of his life — on Christmas, on her birthday, on Valentine’s Day. A lyrical testament to love and failure and salvation.
From the Collection
A Few Lines To Begin With
The Edge of Silence
Country cold night rain
grinds lonely streets
into obsidian gems,
polishing away time and flaws.
Tarred roads and tar babies merge —
twins balancing on Siamese tension —
tumble into macadam hopes
of pot-hole-dodging dreamers.
Silence,
sharp as a stone-cutter’s tool,
shatters obsidian streets into diamonds of despair.
grinds lonely streets
into obsidian gems,
polishing away time and flaws.
Tarred roads and tar babies merge —
twins balancing on Siamese tension —
tumble into macadam hopes
of pot-hole-dodging dreamers.
Silence,
sharp as a stone-cutter’s tool,
shatters obsidian streets into diamonds of despair.
On Coming of Age
I have grown this summer,
somber,
into the suits of death.
Tailors have chalked my lengthening sleeves
as deposition for the years to come.
ii.
Exile in Snow
In fields of quilted snow,
I see two birds exiled
from worlds of warmth,
ruffling white feathers
in white fields of forgetting.
I see two birds exiled
from worlds of warmth,
ruffling white feathers
in white fields of forgetting.
Reviews & Media
Praise for the Collection
The Whole Shebang is a really wonderful and varied compilation… incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking.
Jamie Michele
The Whole Shebang is an anthology that is unfettered, and each poem is an echo of the heart’s deepest yearnings.
Paul Zietsman
If you are looking for poetry that offers comfort, reflection, and inspiration, this book is worth your time.
Luwi Nyakansaila
James R. Van Laan · Landrum, SC
Meet the Author
James R. Van Laan
Jim has been a writer for as long as he has been able to hold a pencil. Born of the American South, schooled in its rhythms and its silences, he has spent a lifetime gathering the lines that became The Whole Shebang — a collection assembled across decades of paying attention.
When he is not writing poems, he is writing Rosa’s Cantina, the first novel in his new series “The Chisum-McDaniel Series.” He lives in Landrum, South Carolina, where he runs Lonesome Roads Publishing and continues to add lines to the long conversation.
From the Writing Desk
✦ Stay In Touch ✦
Hear When the Next Lines Arrive
Occasional notes from the writing desk — new poems, readings, and the rare announcement. No selling. No spam. Just the work.
Separate list for jamesvanlaan.com