X.J. Kennedy described Constellations as, 'generous array of his narrative poems, most of them originally published by small presses, sometimes in limited editions.' ...and further, many will 'find so many of his essential poems so conveniently gathered together.'
About the Author
Robert M. Chute is a native of Naples, Maine and was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, in the Aviation Physiology Unit of a Proving Ground Command. He joined the Bates College teaching staff as Chairman of the Biology Department in 1962. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. Always aware of being a steward of our earth, lakes and trees, Chute was instrumental in the formation of COLA, The Congress of Lake Associations, dedicated to the study and protection of Maine lakes. He also served as chair of a state commission concerned with genetic modification of agricultural products. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. He received the Rhine Humanities Council chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and the Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” Chute was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Chute ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House during the Vietnam War and is an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
Reviews
Each of his [Chute's] poems is a search for meaning, that peculiarly human activity we couldn't stop if we tried. It is the concern of the poet and of his characters.
—Pamela Alexander, author of Navigable Waterways and Yale Series of Younger Poets
As he has done so admirably wiht other pieces of history such as Sweeping the Sky, a nonfiction poem series inspired by Soviet woman combat fliers in World War II, Chute presents the context of lives once lived in an act of profound imagination and empathy in Thirteen Moons."
—Carl Little in the Bangor Daily News
Robert Chute's ear and eye for detail, the mastery of his craftmanship and the intelligence of his choice among the diaries Samuel Sewall Sails for Home, make this an exemplary work, this is poetry of great clarity, lyric power and subtlety.
—Charles Simic
His images are as sharp as crusted snow, and the winter land he shows us is obviously a land which he knows and has walked himself, a land as real as the sound of feet breaking thorugh that snow crust, as real and as lasting as Abenaki dreams.
—Joseph Bruchac
About the Author
Robert M. Chute is a native of Naples, Maine and was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, in the Aviation Physiology Unit of a Proving Ground Command. He joined the Bates College teaching staff as Chairman of the Biology Department in 1962. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. Always aware of being a steward of our earth, lakes and trees, Chute was instrumental in the formation of COLA, The Congress of Lake Associations, dedicated to the study and protection of Maine lakes. He also served as chair of a state commission concerned with genetic modification of agricultural products. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. He received the Rhine Humanities Council chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and the Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” Chute was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Chute ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House during the Vietnam War and is an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
Reviews
Each of his [Chute's] poems is a search for meaning, that peculiarly human activity we couldn't stop if we tried. It is the concern of the poet and of his characters.
—Pamela Alexander, author of Navigable Waterways and Yale Series of Younger Poets
As he has done so admirably wiht other pieces of history such as Sweeping the Sky, a nonfiction poem series inspired by Soviet woman combat fliers in World War II, Chute presents the context of lives once lived in an act of profound imagination and empathy in Thirteen Moons."
—Carl Little in the Bangor Daily News
Robert Chute's ear and eye for detail, the mastery of his craftmanship and the intelligence of his choice among the diaries Samuel Sewall Sails for Home, make this an exemplary work, this is poetry of great clarity, lyric power and subtlety.
—Charles Simic
His images are as sharp as crusted snow, and the winter land he shows us is obviously a land which he knows and has walked himself, a land as real as the sound of feet breaking thorugh that snow crust, as real and as lasting as Abenaki dreams.
—Joseph Bruchac
