With Keen Eye & Salty Wit, Coast Guard Poetry Book Launches August 2022

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Benjamin B. White was pursuing a career in baseball when a worn-out shoulder diverted his life’s course. After an enlistment in the U.S. Army, White ended up as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Established in 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service, the modern Coast Guard is the maritime security, search-and-rescue, and law-enforcement service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Its motto is “Semper Paratus”—“Always Ready!”

Now retired from uniformed service, White teaches human resources, business administration, and college success courses from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“Veterans and military families of all eras and branches will delight in White’s sharp humor and storytelling. His stories of adventures and misadventures are sure to variously inspire laughter, reflection, and patriotic pride,” says the publisher. “After all, who doesn’t love a good sea story?”

Take, for example, White’s poem “Ski Boat”:

I worked for a guy
I would work for
Anytime, anywhere …
                                                      And he told me
It was possible
To ski behind
A 44-foot Motor Lifeboat
                                                      Though he stopped short
Before telling me
How he knew.

White’s military-themed poems have appeared in such national literary venues as Military Experience & the Arts’ journal As You Were, and Southeast Missouri State University’s Proud to Be: Writing from American Warriors anthologies. His previous books include Buddha Bastinado Blues; The Kill Gene; Conley Bottom: A Poemoir; and The Recon Trilogy +1. In his spare time, White is also an acquisitions editor for Running Wild Press LLC, Los Angeles.

Starting August 4, 2022 (THE 232nd BIRTHDAY OF THE U.S. COAST GUARD!):

ALWAYS READY: Poems from a Life in the U.S. Coast Guard (70 pages, Middle West Press LLC) is available in a $11.99 trade paperback edition through Amazon and other booksellers, as well as a $5.99 Kindle e-book edition exclusively via Amazon.

Middle West Press LLC (www.middlewestpress.com) is a Johnston, Iowa-based editor and publisher of non-fiction, journalism, and poetry. As an independent micro-press, we publish one to four titles annually. Our projects are often inspired by the people, places, and history of the American Midwest. 


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