Gateways is a collection of poems and corresponding photographs that celebrate the beauty, spirit, and emotion evoked by places and experiences meaningful to the author, Anthony Mauk. Ranging from odes to the serene coastal vistas of the Palos Verdes Peninsula in California to tributes honoring the author's Indonesian heritage, this compilation invites readers along on a journey celebrating nature, family, cultural traditions, friendship and more.
The poems showcase Mauk's reverence for natural landscapes like the oceanside cliffs of his native Palos Verdes, conveyed through verse extolling sunsets, seagulls in flight and the sense of peace embodied by sites like Point Vicente. Several works pay homage to meaningful structures including the Vanderlip estate Villa Narcissa and the Acoma Pueblo and folkways of New Mexico's Native communities. The collection also commemorates the people and relationships most precious to Mauk. Poems honor his Indonesian kinsmen; chronicle friendships forged in childhood and speak to the guiding force of love through pieces like "Marriage" and "Love Heals."
While diverse in subject matter, Mauk's poems are connected by appreciative depictions of formative people and places and an innate understanding of the emotional resonance and deeper human longings evoked by these subjects. As a complete work, "Gateways" serves as an ode to all that provides meaning and beauty amid life's journeys.