The Structure of Desire 


Now available from Little Red Tree Publishing:
The Structure of Desire By W.F. Lantry
(Paperback, 7” X 10” 170 pages)

treelogoforpages (1)


W.F. Lantry’s poems are so heartfelt, sensual, and beautiful that they leave me breathless. This book is an emotional, tender book that just sings. The Structure of Desire should be on everyone’s reading list. This poet, this writing, a gift. – Gloria Mindock, editor, Cervena Barva Press, author of Nothing Divine Here.


W.F. Lantry’s long-awaited first full-length collection The Structure of Desire is a poetry of “transport,” in which everyday moments expand into mystic significance at the prompting of beauty in the form of a person, a dance or music. He reads as he writes, with each word thick with import, as if his poems were sacred texts. “Spiritual” poetry has been much discussed of late. If it does come back into vogue, I hope that its practitioners will follow Mr. Lantry’s (and Mr. Stevens’) example by grounding their ecstasies in realia. Mr. Lantry’s recurring images–the dance, the mirror, sinuous drapery–never emerge from some vague poetic subconscious but from his visions of the world around him. As a poet of rapture, he writes poetry dear to my heart. I recommend this book to all who enjoy mind-expanding mystical poetry and anyone who wants to be reminded what the selfless, helpless sort of love feels like. – Aaron Poochigian, poet, translator, author of The Cosmic Purr and Sappho -Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments.


This beautifully realized book  includes a prologue and chapter introductions by Mr. Lantry, over a hundred poems, and Pre-Raphaelite paintings, printed in black and white, as a frontispiece for each chapter. The love poems take us on a gentle, sensuous journey through a land of silk and pearls, lace and candlelight, song and mystery. I like best the poems in which the author leaves interior rooms and writes about struggles to tame nature for his gardens, walks along riverbanks or through forests, and time spent in his workshop where he fashions wood and teaches his son. There is grit, hard work, and striving in this volume, along with the good wine, the fine fabrics. This author takes exquisite care with his work, and there is much in this volume for each of us to enjoy. – Nonnie Augustine, poetry editor of The Linnets Wings, author of One Day Tells its Tale to Another


“Desire” is a lush and beautiful word that encompasses many feelings, paths, wishes, dreams, the land and landscape, the sea, and all that we know of life and hope to know of the mystical life. Poet W.F. Lantry understands Desire at its core. The poems in The Structure of Desire come to the reader as a rare kind of gift. You don’t have to be a poet or even an avid poetry reader to sink into this book. – Susan Tepper, author of From the Umberplatzen and Deer & Other Stories.

With his formal curriculum well in hand, and technical tools sharpened, nothing could surpass or replace the immediacy of the authenticity of W.F. Lantry finding his ultimate muse: Miranda. She is the idée fixe that powers his drive to capture her presence in the de-incarnate wind or fleeting spark of a lover’s glance. Moments such as these permeate his collection The Structure of Desire. Great loves and talent have always found echoes and correspondences of each other in other art forms and other artists. This book is an excellent example of this landscape. – Jean-Yves Solinga, author of Clair-Obscur of the Soul.