“In East Bluff James Lenfestey shares the heart-shaped agates and wind-kissed feathers he has gathered over many years. The poems delight us, an unknown bird in cedar boughs; they strike us, an owl swooping down on the garden vole. Yet we sense, coursing through the whole collection, like the ever-present current through the Straights, a wisdom that comes only from a life well-lived, where there is ‘so much known, yet you still wake wondering.’”

– Thor Bacon, author of Making the Shore

“Not much gets by East Bluff Bard James Lenfestey. From sunup to moonrise, he is on watch registering the phenomena of Mackinac moment to moment. He defines spirits out of the fog and has the nerve to eulogize the presence of omnipresent mice. The odes and lyrics of East Bluff are cunningly and curiously arranged as witness to wonders simple and wonders, but for him, unseen.”

– James Bogan, author of Mackinac Suite and Seven Wonders of Mackinac

“James Lenfestey’s poetry is by turns wide-open and up-close. In East Bluff: Mackinac Poems Old & New, he turns his seasoned eye and ear to the flora, fauna and families that echo and distill the magic of Mackinac.”

– Glen Young, teacher, poet, editor, and literary columnist for the Petoskey News Review