Movies in a Small Town

". . . Movies in a Small Town features a personal quest in which terror, wisdom, and tenderness allow us an eye-level view from which we can compassionately recognize each other's fragility and failures, and how our 'tragic loneliness is also our magical life.' Finishing the book, I felt the awakenings of a new beginning, like at the end of an absorbing movie when, as Butts says, the whole place lights up and we remember who we are." - Jack Myers

"W. E. Butts possesses all the character and perceptiveness which makes for strong poetry. He sees the world of common things with a scrupulous attention to detail that makes the familiar strange; and more importantly, his character studies and poems of recollection are filled with a rare sort of empathy and generosity of spirit. Movies in a Small Town is a distinguished accomplishment." - David Wojahn

"The actors in these poems struggle with loss, aging and the pain of solitude. They display for us such courageous and bittersweet beauty. The sensuousness of life’s brevity is exponentially enhanced by Butt’s keen observation and delicately rendered lines. . . . There is an oriental grace and delicious directness here. . . . Some poems are excursions into memory, youth, and how the past has molded our creative and philosophical values, such as in ‘1948’ and the collection’s title piece ‘Movies in a Small town, 1957’.It is a fine metaphor to base this excellent collection upon. . ." Rustin Larson