Available now for pre-order from Finishing Line Press:
Relict,
by Brian Mosher
Relict is the result of
the author’s struggle to figure out what the death of his father meant to him.
Does a person become something different on the day they no longer have any
living parents? A child becomes an adolescent, becomes an adult. A single person
becomes part of a couple, becomes a parent, becomes again single either as a
widow or through divorce. But we have no word for the stage of life that begins
once both a person’s parents have died. This book is an attempt to document the
feelings of grief, and to reconnect to a lost past through stories about
ancestors, all without losing sight of a hopeful future.
This title will be released on January 23, 2026
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/relict-by-brian-mosher/
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Brian Mosher,
in his new collection of poems RELICT,
searches for what remains after the loss of loved ones. What remains are photographs: four
brothers,/youngest to oldest, left to right:/my father and uncles, /who all
share my face./ Also wisdom, inherent knowledge,/as
a river knows where to flow,/as the oak tree understands/the value of its
shadow./ Then, empathy…this the only time I ever saw him cry./Such was the
measure of this man, /the loss which hurt him
most was not his own./ And of course, hope
to mingle with/the scars, to soothe the aches, to warm /the joints,
Finally, what remains is this
wonderful collection of poems.
—David R. Surette,
author of Tonic
“This collection pairs the easy
charm of storytelling with the biting grief of a poet grasping for the right
words. The respect Mosher shows for those who came before him is tempered with
the knowledge that he just doesn’t know any more than what he’s seen. And so
what he shares with us are memories, lessons, histories of men who built
family, tradition, and home for each other. This is a collection for those who
have felt a legacy resting squarely on their shoulders and felt unsure of where
to go next. Brian’s poetry reminds us to go with what we know to be true.”
–Sarah Jane Mulvey,
Poet Laureate of the City of New Bedford
In this collection of
confessional poetry, Mosher probes stories of family and uncovers the rich
emotional subtexts
beneath seemingly ordinary exchanges between father and son, husband and wife,
and father and child. His free verse, unadorned, direct, full of fierce
self-examination, is both poignant and artful.
–Lynne Viti,
Poet Laureate of Westwood,
Massachusetts
Some memories, like relics, are
imbued with the power to heal. The poems in Brian Mosher’s, Relict offer a
familiar, healing warmth. They speak of the grace in each person’s origin story
that has the power to save us, if only we will learn from it. That sense of
salvation is stitched like a scarlet thread through this collection. Mosher’s
details snug readers up to the century old woodstove in Aunt Gus’s kitchen.
They capture the scene of a husband comforting his wife as she takes in the
news of her father’s death: “Such was the measure of this man/ the loss which
hurt him most was not his own”. We hear the voices of uncles— their childhood
escapades knitting present to past as they sit in their sacred circle on green
plastic lawn chairs, summer’s light fading. And sometimes, the inward gaze
reveals a glimmer of self-reflection — self-knowledge breaking through as in
the poem, “I Remember the Blood, Mostly” in which a son discovers his father
Face down on the hardwood,
halfway out of the bathroom,
his breath pushed the blood,
spread it wider, toward the
linen closet.
That last detail embeds the
tragic in the quotidian. Will that ordinary space ever be the same? Should it
be? In a later poem, “Lighter Than Any Feather” the speaker ends by saying,
I cannot read the book of life
written in my father’s soul.
I know only what I know.
And we understand from this
brief lyric—accepting that we will never know the whole life of another
makes what we do know more sacred. What memories we have will be the relics we
carry on our own journies. Mosher’s poems celebrate the twin miracles of love
and forgiveness (both of self and of others). Spare and clear, they nourish the
heart.
—Miriam O’Neal,
Poet Laureate of Plymouth Mass., and author of The Half Said Things and The Body Dialogues
Brian Mosher can not remember a time when he didn’t write. Beginning with fictional “biographies” of friends in High School, to Bob Dylan-inspired song lyrics during what should have been college years, to music reviews for multiple underground publications in the early 2000s, writing has always been part of how he identifies himself and how he examines the world around him.
Having self-published three collections of poetry and prose
between 2016 and 2021, his first professionally published chapbook was “Dreams
and Other Magic” (Alien Buddha Press 2023), which explores the unconscious
world of dreams and fantasies. In 2025, Metaphysical Fox Press published a
full-length collection of poems and song lyrics titled “A Muster of Melodious
Musings”, containing work written primarily between 2016-2024. His poems and
short stories have appeared in multiple journals and magazines, including Lily Poetry
Review, Blue Villa, Nixes Mate, eMerge, Books and Pieces, Confetti, Rituals,
Coneflower Cafe, Written Tales, Esoterica Magazine, and Half and One
Magazine.
Mosher is a native of southeastern Massachusetts, spending
his childhood in the town known for it’s professional football franchise. He
preferred them in the 1970s when they weren’t very good, but it was easy to get
tickets.
His favorite ways to pass time are reading and listening to
music, and he draws inspiration for much of his writing from observations made
from barstools. He also frequents many open mic and poetry reading venues
throughout the area.
