Press Release - Only You Can Say: New and Selected Poems. Available Now.
This unreleased press release was generated for submission to an Oregon newspaper. Guy Craig is listing it here instead. Full disclosure: it is a cheap promotion with automated, purchased words (this promotion only. Not his poems. Never those!) to showcase some of his writing personas’ (characters’) idle pathos and quixotic deeds. But mostly, it is to help Guy Craig sell his authentic, heartfelt Pacific Northwest (PNW) poetry books. He writes poems, not press releases (just this untidy disclaimer). Now you see why.
News Release: Guy Craig Unveils Only You Can Say: New and Selected Poems
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Oregon – February 26, 2025 – Unheralded poet Guy Craig, a quiet voice of the Pacific Northwest, releases his fifth poetry collection, Only You Can Say: New and Selected Poems, today, offering readers a tender reckoning with grief amid nature’s enduring embrace. Published by GuyCraigPoetry.com, this latest work from the Coos Bay native blends fresh poems of loss with standout pieces from his earlier books, including Coos River Reverberations and Mast Years.
Craig, who grew up along the South Fork Coos River in a home held by five generations of his family, roots his poetry in the wild pulse of Oregon’s landscapes. In Only You Can Say, many new poems wrestle with grief—its raw ache softened by the mist of forests, the rush of rivers, and the quiet mysticism of the Pacific Northwest. Think Mary Oliver’s intimacy with nature meeting William Stafford’s reflective stillness, now shadowed by personal loss. Craig’s words don’t just linger; they mourn and mend.
“Writing is about what’s close and uncomfortable,” Craig says, a mantra that takes on new weight here. “These poems came from standing in the cold rain, feeling it carry what I couldn’t say.” Informed by his background in special education and psychology—degrees from the University of Oregon and Portland State University—Craig crafts verses that hold space for sorrow with a rare, empathetic grace. This collection, pairing new work with selected gems, traces his evolution as a poet unafraid to face the dark.
Why buy it? Because Only You Can Say is more than poetry—it’s a companion. Readers will walk the damp trails of the PNW, sifting through grief’s layers with a guide who finds light in the undergrowth. It’s for anyone who’s lost something and sought answers in the wind, or who treasures words that resonate like a river’s low hymn. Shaped by influences like Michael McGriff’s coastal starkness and Billy Collins’ gentle clarity, Craig’s latest is both a discovery and a homecoming—timeless, raw, and ready to be heard.
Only You Can Say: New and Selected Poems is available now at major retailers like Only You Can Say: New and Selected Poems: Craig, Guy: 9781733496872: Amazon.com: Books. Step into Guy Craig’s world, where grief meets growth, and see why this unheralded talent deserves a place on your shelf.
Media Contact:
Guy Craig
guycraigpoetry@gmail.com
About the Author:
Guy Craig is the author of five poetry collections, including Coos River Reverberations: Poems of River, Farm & Forest (2021) and Mast Years: Poems (2022). Living in Portland with his wife, Sarah, and children, Kenneth and Stella, he writes from a life shaped by Oregon’s wild heart and a deep well of human connection.
