The Story of Our People is a poetic drama.  This work represents my most comprehensive poetic achievement; it portrays the ideas and the phiolosophy that in my view constitute the reality of the human condition.  The book is dedicated to the Spanish poet Lorca, who was executed during the Spanish civil war.  The final poem portrays a scene of the execution of a poet.  The earlier poems in the volume develop the story line as well as numerous philosophical perspectives.

The book is available at amazon and through my publisher, BookSurge.  Please visit the amazon site for a braoder description of the material.  You may also wish to visit Kirkus Discoveries to access the quite complimentary review of the book.  The review is also now reprinted on the product page at amazon.com.

Kirkus Discoveries:

In this slim, cross-genre volume of verse, Hillstrom explores humanity’s greatest potential with verve and vitality. Amidst the rubble of a war-torn city, a grandmother becomes the charge d’affaires for a group of orphans...Thus opens the story within a story, a fragmented effort with vignettes of stage direction woven with verse that reflect the now-fragmented lives of the conflict’s survivors...Hillstrom creates a vacuum of timelessness, and with this mechanism, the parable becomes one of generations and the passing on of wisdom through the poet...Hillstrom’s volume is ambitious, its achievement not in an excessive or flamboyant use of verbiage, but rather in its careful tautness of vagaries...In the Socratic/Platonic tradition, the poet-philosopher is the seer—the visionary martyr who is persecuted and killed for spreading awareness. Evoking ideas ranging from ancient Babylon to labor activist Joe Hill, and conjuring imagery of Eden with the archetypal earthen woman and the all-knowing poet, the pages burn with wonderful allegorical matter...Adroit language textured with edifying insights, verse that is engaging and alive.