About Me
Stan Winarski
My compass points to Wisconsin's Northwoods. For forty years, this quiet landscape and my lifelong connection to the natural world have shaped my poetry. My work moves between intimate observation and mythic imagination, traditional forms and sparse free verse. THE WOODS ~ TRAILS AND TANGENTS won Finishing Line Press's 2025 Chapbook Contest. I spent decades writing while balancing corporate work as Director of Financial Services with family life. My poems have appeared in Solitary Plover, Bramble, The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Calendars, and as spoken word on WDRT FM's The Landward with Catherine Young series. I am part of the LakeSide Poets & Writers community, available for readings, and enjoy visiting high school creative writing classes to discuss the craft of poetry. Now retired, I return to the woods regularly to sit, watch, and listen.
Poet
Early Praise
Arboreal grace fills this poetry collection. Cedars and oaks. Boulders and birdsong. And stillness. “Let being still—be enough” from the poem This Hour represents the collection’s dominant theme and fuses poem to poem. The collection is reminiscent of The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell in the way it encourages readers to connect with nature to connect with ourselves and each other.
Lora Keller
Widely published and award-winning poet currently at work on two poetry collections: Maybe Now Basketball and What I Wore to the Mental Hospital.
Save words for another day,/Let being still be enough,” is a natural truth Stan weaves throughout his chapbook. These reflective poems capture moments that could have been lost in time, but thankfully, not. Vivid imagery trances readers into a state of nostalgia, despite memories not being one's own. Through rhyme and rhythm, this chapbook enchants from start to finish. Sit back on a park bench and enjoy this read.
Kathrine Yets
Founder and facilitator of LakeSide Poets & Writers
