After over thirty years of being a serious writer, I have finally published my first book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692469079/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_wU7Ovb1C0DH82

Tears and Prayers: Sharing Pain and Sorrow, Finding Hope and Comfort

One reviewer wrote: “In Tears and Prayers, Doc Arnett suggests–among many others–this sharp truth: ‘We are touched by light / and shaped by shadows.’ In the next fifty or so pages, he draws exquisitely the living details that support his claim. Arnett has the carpenter’s chest of any good contemporary poet: a keen attention to sound; a fine sense of the line break; a gift for metaphor; a clear, experienced attention to the natural world; and, maybe most of all, the workman’s dedication it takes to discover, in the confines of the commonplace, something of the Divine.

“But what separates this collection from most of the poetry books I’ve recently read is something quite different and rare: a pastor’s heart. Unlike many good contemporary poems that seem to deflect our readerly attempts at understanding, Arnett’s verse offers itself with both hands open. And it offers deep rewards for anyone ready to accept what he has to give. These poems stand somewhere between the poetry of his fellow Kentuckian Wendell Berry and the sermon you heard last Sunday–assuming it was a really good one.”

Another wrote: “Doc Arnett, with his words, can break your heart…and then heal it, leaving it stronger and more resilient. Tears and Prayers is beautifully written. And powerful. And (fill in the blank with all good things). This is one of those rare books you will treasure and share. Buy at least two because you’ll loan them and give them as gifts. Doc may not make house calls, but he sure does hit home.”

I hope you find the collection worth reading… and sharing.

H. Arnett
7/13/15