Two Massachusetts newspapers covered the release of my book of poems “Gardeners Do It With Their Hands Dirty.”

The Old Colony Memorial, the community newspaper for the town of Plymouth, Mass., where I used to live and work, published a story titled “Former Plymouth Resident Releases Poetry Book.”

The Quincy Sun, published in the city of Quincy, Mass., ran a story titled “Globe Reporter Pens New Poetry Book.”

I will be reading from “Gardeners Do It With Their Hands Dirty” at the Plymouth Public Library on Monday, June 12, at 7 p.m. With slide show of photos of the flower garden referred to in the book, and some light refreshments. The reading is free. The book will be available for purchase and signing.

Here’s the story published by the Old Colony Memorial:

PLYMOUTH — Boston Globe writer Robert Knox, a former Plymouth resident and Old Colony Memorial editor, has published his first book of poetry, “Gardeners Do It With Their Hands Dirty.“
The book consists of 27 poems, many of them related to gardening, the outdoors, planting a perennial flower garden and the environment. Other subjects include a father’s near-death in World War II, visits to Greece and Lebanon, a busy day on a Boston beach, family crises, a birthday party and and an encounter with Syrian refugees.
“Knox’s well-tended garden of verses furnishes readers with elegant borders, unexpected vistas, gorgeous blossoms, and insights as sharp as thorns. His themes are as local as the backyard and as universal as the weather,” said Robert Wexelblatt, Boston University poet and short story writer.
Knox is a freelance correspondent with bylines in the Globe South, other sections of the Boston Globe and other newspapers. He recently published his first novel, “Suosso’s Lane,” based on the Massachusetts roots of the Sacco-Vanzetti case and presented programs on the book and the history behind it at a dozen South Shore libraries and other regional settings. As contributing editor for the online poetry journal Verse-Virtual.com, Knox has published new poetry on a monthly basis on that site. His poems and stories have also appeared in other literary periodicals.
The book was published in May this year by Finishing Line Press, an active, independent publisher of poetry based in Kentucky. “Gardeners Do It With Their Hands Dirty” is available from the publisher’s website at http://finishinglinepress.com for $14.99.

The story in the Quincy Sun added some further details:

According to the publisher’s description of the book: “The poems followed a backyard gardener’s decision to dig up all the grass at his Boston area home and plant flowers, both perennials annuals, ground covers, shrubs, a small tree or two, berry bushes, and vegetables. To  be an amateur means to do something not for money, but for love. A few summers later the garden blossomed, and the poems grew from the voices heard while tending the plants, pulling weeds, trimming old growth, planting anew.”