Shadowprints

These poems are intuitive trails to an understanding beyond understanding. Mystery is a bottomless lake of fresh water. We stop for a little while and take a drink. We do not want to leave.
—Joy Harjo, poet and musician; ten poetry books including Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings and She Had Some Horses; Guggenheim Fellowship, Josephine Miles Poetry Award, William Carlos Williams Award, and American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts

Kim Zabel's vision is spare and clean, looking through North Country eyes. These are ancient yet post-apocalyptic songs from a deep place, sung in a compelling new voice. Shadowprints is a testament, spoken in the mature, confident and prophetic voice of an old soul giving instructions to another about to set foot into the uncharted terrain of the spirit. Cormac McCarthy and Marilynne Robinson and even Jack London come to mind, with a dash of Galway Kinnell.
—Ken McCullough, Minnesota poet, eight poetry books including Broken Gates, Academy of American Poets Award, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship


The poems mediate the relationship between human desire and the natural world with probing intellect and quiet, lyric force.
—Julia Goldberg, award-winning journalist and author of Inside Story: Everyone’s Guide to Reporting and Writing Creative Nonfiction, faculty in the Creative Writing and Literature Department of Santa Fe University of Art and Design


There is serenity within these poems, between earth and sky, between faith and despair. Readers can find sanctuary here.
—Linda Back McKay, Minnesota author of The Next Best Thing (poetry) and Out of the Shadows: Stories of Adoption and Reunion (nonfiction)



Kim Zabel's first book of poetry was made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.