'Islands of Experience' is an exceptional collection of poetry. It carries a punch that all readers will feel, yet its power is tempered by subtlety and delicacy of language that will make readers linger over each line. The words themselves are simple, yet deep enough to challenge the profound thinker. They render to simple things an awe-inspiring grandeur and reduce the enormous to almost nothing.

Many of these poems deal with Alaskan scenes. Here is an excerpt from "Snowbound":

Softly, silently, stealthily now,
the soft snow steals away
the freedom of travel the sourdough knew
on the trails of the summer day.

Warm in his cabin,
snug in the snow,
it's here
that peace is found.
It's here
that the cares of the world are gone.
Who cares if he is snowbound?

Looking back on a full and varied life, Dean Nichols casts a discerning eye on the tangibles and intangibles of existence. In this except from "The End?" he touches upon one of life's crucial questions:

Ah, so 'tis happiness you seek, my friend;
is that your goal?
Take care, lest on its placid sea
you strike a shoal
that pinions you and holds you fast,
so that for you there is no future,
only past.

Vital, energetic, yet serene, Dean Nichols' poems challenge the reader to look around him and within him. The author comments, "I would not ask you to share with me the mainland of my life; for who has half a century to spare? But I invite you to share with me a few of these islands of experience and through them catch a glimpse of an untraveled world."

Author - Dean Nichols

"I prepared...to read ['Islands of Experience'] with a 'Who told you you could write' attitude. I was, after reading only a few lines, put in my place. The book was written by a man named Dean Nichols who works for N.C. Cat. But he shouldn't. He should spend 'all' his time writing."

Herb Shaindlin, KIMO-TV News, Anchorage, Alaska

"His style is simple, his words are common, but his ideas provoke; and the implications of what he records perhaps go further than even he realizes."

'National Fisherman', Camden, Maine

"As all of us, he [Nichols] is constantly searching for an answer to the mystery of life. It is a rare individual, however, who [can portray], as Nichols can...these thoughts [so well] in written form."

Tom Duncan, KUAC-TV, University of Alaska, College, Alaska

"The book is one of those rare little gems that you will return to again and again."

'The Reporter', Arts & Crafts League, Anchorage, Alaska

The Copper Sands and Prince William Sound by Dean Nichols
The N.P.M.W.A.R.A. by Dean Nichols
A Sailor's Yarns and Observations by Dean Nichols
Two Cats for Puerto Rico by Dean Nichols
A Poet's Sketch of His Biography by Dean Nichols