Sixteen Bits: Poems

This playful and earnest collection of poems uses old video games to explore the nature of memory and growing up, the important experience of place, and the limits of nostalgia. Through simple (though spirited!) language and general-audience-friendly references, Sixteen Bits demonstrates that serious poetry doesn't have to be impenetrable or unapproachable. Funny, heartfelt, and clear, these poems are for gamers and non-gamers alike, for those who like their poetry with dashes of humor and energy, and for anyone who has felt the bittersweet pangs of growing up. Please enjoy, folks. Samples: PRINCESS I WONDER Princess, I wonder how you mark your time while I, with fire flower or feather, tour Vanilla Dome and Soda Lake and climb Cookie Mountain towards you--whether you look out acroess the pixel-ized, windy Donut Plains, and ask yourself where your day has gone, or stand and affix your eyes on some artful distraction: the white bare canvas, the book of poems. Or are you overcome by doubt? Does an insistent fear come to you in His tower, wher you succumb to wondering: What am I doing here? But I can't know for sure, alone in this strange country. So, on I go: run and jump. I hope it makes you love me.