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Featured Star Author

William Guest

William Guest is the author of Who Are We, Places You Want to Go, and What I Cannot Abandon. Guest graduated from Yale University in 1953, and Harvard Law School in 1957. A practicing attorney from 1957 – 1985, he was chair and CEO of a life insurance enterprise engaged in acquisitions from 1985 – 2006. Writing and sculpting is his third career. His website is WilliamGuest.com.

His poems have appeared in venues such as The New Lantern Review, Calliope, Storyteller Magazine, The Listening Eye, the anthologies of Texas Poetry by Mutabilis Press: Weight of Addition, and, in 2015, Untameable City: Poems on the Nature of Houston. He was also a juried poet in The Houston Poetry Fest.

Guest is a South Carolina native and long-time resident of Houston, Texas. He is a life member of the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Houston Philosophical Society, and the Board of Visitors of McDonald Observatory, as well as a board member of the Houston chapter of Texas Nature Conservancy, Mercury Baroque Orchestra, and an Advisory Director of Public Poetry.

Guest Head Shot

Who Are We: Man and Cosmology

Who Are We, an essay in verse, investigates the history of the universe and, in it, the role of humanity. About the book, Harvard University professor of Biology Brian Farrell said “I am overwhelmed by the beauty and truth of this epic poem.”

“I wanted to give this poem the attention that it deserves. It was really an adventure and a journey for me. I learned a lot…thought a lot…and felt a lot. It really is an amazing work. It’s not just science. It is man’s voice struggling with it, and playing with it, and feeling the terror and wonder of it. In a way, it is a very important poem for our times because we are at the end of an epoch of time, and everything is changing so rapidly that there is a need for a poetic voice, or many poetic voices, speaking of it…and this poem has a rich combination of thoughts, the science and the poetry.”

~Loueva Smith, Poet, Playwright, Performance Artist

What I Cannot Abandon

What I Cannot Abandon is curated from over six decades of writing, and these poems by William Guest paint an inimitable portrait of the human experience. Contemplating both the mysteries and miracles of life, as well as the challenges of aging and mortality, Guest expertly assesses life’s joys and sorrows with insight and tenderness. Through their reckoning with the world at large, these eclectic poems engage the wonder of the universe with buoyancy and pleasure, ultimately staring darkness in the face to learn that, yes, there are still plenty of reasons to rejoice.

Never Enough

Never Enough, the fourth book of lyric poems by William Guest, praises nature, and the joy derived from it, in so many of its manifestations. There are also poems about climate change and family, as well as existential ruminations about life and death. And poems about aging, as he has now reached his tenth decade, hoping for more and more.

Pith

Pith, the fifth book of lyric poems by William Guest, delves into a wide array of themes and styles, offering vignettes of rich and joyful moments. These poems explore experiences with family, the passage of time, and the mysteries of life and death. While building upon the themes explored in his previous works, Guest ensures a fresh perspective to avoid redundancy.

In essence, Pith aims to cast a broad net around the human experience, touching upon the enigmatic realms of birth, existence, relationships, and mortality. The possibilities and topics are endless, and in this new addition, Who Are We? Man and Cosmology, Guest ventures into these profound questions through the medium of verse.

Out of the Dark

Out of the Dark, the third book of lyric poems from William Guest, traverses time and space – and the poet’s long life – to give unique insight into a key purpose of all poetry: to strive for meaning and understanding, and to celebrate the shared experience of what it’s like to be alive.

Through these poems we find a common humanness that we see in each other, and that we know we share, in face of the challenges that can tear us apart. Written over the course of many years, and with Guest’s usual vision and perspective, these poems seek – and find – a rare light.

Time Do Not Stop

Time Do Not Stop is built around meditations on family, eternity, the joys of life, the pondering of mortality and loss, the grinding mill of continuous change, illusions and realities, and the plight of small humans in a vast cosmos.

Guest’s diverse experiences as a lawyer, business executive, and sculptor lend perspective to many of life’s most ineffable emotional and intellectual quandaries. Through all of this, he provides us with a myriad of ways to see and feel the vitality of being, even when ultimate meaning, if any, remains elusive.

This sharing of decades of observant poems is more about the questions of the world than any presumed answers. Time Do Not Stop makes us ask, Would we ever want to stop time?

No. It’s too beautiful, what we have.