
Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love
Love Poems by Charles P. Ries
Editor-in-chief at Červená Barva Press
Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love is a meditation on the ebb and flow of love in these changing times. The screw-ups, suck-ups, epiphanies, black holes, celestial awakenings, and confusions of the thing considered mystical to some, and impossible to others. Told from the perspective of a middle-aged lover-in-training, these poems have all the joy and all the pain and all the wonder, but resonate through eyes that have traveled a few miles down that sometimes-lonesome highway of romance.
A book of meaning, wonder, laughter, and tears that women will adore … but don’t be fooled, men, because you’ll root for it, too! Relatable on every level with tales of woe and joy; while the women are smiling in romantic bliss, you men will be wondering where this “guidebook” has been all your lives. Romance is not dead! Knuckleheads still abound! Love, sweet love, is still the kindest medicine of them all.
While the young may suffer from love, it takes an experienced traveler to understand what to make of it. Charles P. Ries is guide, guru, therapist, participant, and equal-opportunity opportunist, as well as the blind leading the lost. Yet, through it all, his true north remains love, and his destination remains this singular realization of what it is to be fully alive and human.
“Miss Valley City, North Dakota”: Second-place winner of the 2014 Luminaire Poetry Award
“Birch Street”: Fourth-place winner of the 2014 Luminaire Poetry Award
“Influences of Light”: Second-place winner of the 2013 Luminaire Poetry Award
“Redhead”: Finalist in the 2013 Luminaire Poetry Award
Content warnings: coming soon

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Praise for Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love
editor at Centennial Press and author of Risen and The Misadventures of the Paisley Cowboy
editor at Červená Barva Press and author of Blood Soaked Dresses and Nothing Divine Here
author of Midlife Muse and Finishing Lines
About Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love
• Love Poems
• Published by Alternating Current Press
• 5½” x 8½” Perfectbound Trade Paperback
• Cream Paper, 78 Pages
• Also Available in PDF Digital Format
• Print ISBN-13: 978-0615764344
• Print ISBN-10: 0615764347
• Digital ASIN: TK
• Digital eISBN: TK
• First Edition: February 12, 2013
• Cover artwork by Mike Pavelich
• Permalink | Short URL: tinyurl.com/girlfriendmysteries
• Available at University at Buffalo Special Collections Library; Buffalo, New York
• Available at Woodland Pattern Bookstore; Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Available at Steins Garden & Gifts; Wisconsin
• Available at The John Michael Kohler Art Center; Wisconsin
• Available at Z-Spot Espresso & Coffee; Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Images for public use for Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love
Click here to view/download high-resolution front cover.
Click here to view/download high-resolution photo of Charles P. Ries by Dan Bishop of Dan Bishop Photography.
Sneak Peek at Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love (Scroll inside box if blank.)
Reviews & mentions for Girl Friend & Other Mysteries of Love
Reviewed in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Blurbed on Sheboygan Press
Reviewed on Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene
9/13 M Magazine
Quill and Parchment, Vol 144, June 2013
About author Charles P. Ries

A citizen philosopher, Ries lived in London and North Africa after college, where he studied the mystical teachings of Islam known as Sufism. In 1989, he worked with the Dalai Lama on a program that brought American religious- and psycho-therapists together for a weeklong dialogue. He has done extensive work with men’s groups and worked with a Jungian psychotherapist for over five years, during which time he learned to find meanings in small things. He is also a founding member of the Lake Shore Surf Club, the oldest freshwater surfing club on the Great Lakes.
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