A Thousand Flames

A debut poetry collection mapping the quiet geography of memory, landscape, and the ordinary moments that hold a lifetime.

"Corey Pressman is a magical human - magical art, magical writing. His finely made poems are bells of vision and clarity to help us 'stay the same changing.'" - Naomi Shihab Nye  

In A Thousand Flames, Corey S. Pressman looks closely at hillsides, at rivers, and at the small, unremarkable moments that turn out to hold everything. The collection's twelve sections move through longing, water, love, and the ordinary made luminous. Every poem relies on the specific, sensory detail that only comes from years of steady, patient observation.

The settings range widely, shifting from a hilltop in Mill Valley to the excavated ruins of Çatalhöyük. Yet across these different backdrops, the poems share a single instinct: to stop, notice, and stay a little longer than most of us do.

This collection focuses on what we keep and what slips past us. It explores the discipline of paying attention before a moment is gone, and about the thousand small flames that a life is actually made of.