Four Mile

In Four Mile, Paul Stroble visits a stretch of midwestern prairie that he has visited for over sixty years. Written during the pandemic, the poems call us to seek the divine presence that comes to us in beloved locations.

One of the poems won first place in the 2016 Adult Poetry contest of the Kentucky State Poetry Society.

One reviewer writes, "Paul Stroble manages to craft a suite of poems simultaneously highly accessible and deeply mysterious, which could also well describe any place one truly loves. Stroble captures the sacred essence of his subjects with a richness such that they cannot be confused for anything or anyone else. Ultimately, though, it is the guileless vulnerability of these poems' speaker that is his greatest gift to his readers. This is poetry that gives, and does so generously."

Another reviewer writes, "Paul Stroble's poems in Four Mile embrace country life, history, secular and religious belief with sophistication and wit. These poems reveal what lies beneath as much as Sherwood Anderson's stories do; whatever rural life may be, it is not simple or simple-minded. Stroble's love for the land, its people, and its past is unsentimental but a full of an unsparing love as that of Flannery O'Connor's work. This collection reads like a wonderful novel, but Four Mile is a descendent of Robert Frost at his best."

The poems are 60 pages, not including notes and acknowledgments.