Poetry. Jewish Studies. True to its title, Peter Waldor's WHO TOUCHES EVERYTHING (Settlement House Books, 2013) is a book of connections. From the click of an infant's lips to hermits living in adjacent caves, from "where a Mafioso/ left those terrible/ plastic bags..." to the first woman "to row the Atlantic," these spare and hard-edged poems are as rich in wisdom as they are in imagery. WHO TOUCHES EVERYTHING is a rewarding book. Peter Waldor is one of the most original voices in American poetry today. With subtle wit and a pitch perfect ear he celebrates all things great and small—be it a bolt hole on a bridge to the speed of light—with a transformative, often spiritual imagination. We are better off after reading him.

Who Touches Everything

Literature & Fiction

Waldor, Peter

Poetry

Settlement House Books

Seven Quilts

Kelsay Books

One goes to Peter Waldor's poems as to deep wells of wisdom, to draw up the strength and beauty that we so urgently need. Understandings and Misunderstandings: in poem after poem, it is the reader, even more than the poet, who is confronted with these situations. What do we know about nature? About the people around us? About our loved ones? About the often troubling social circumstances we have inherited? Seemingly anecdotal, seemingly based on quotidian events, hewn from the vernacular, these poems gradually unfold into complex parables. Like Gerald Stern, Waldor's "mentor and master" in the wonderful poem "Pear Sharing," Waldor has learned a great lesson: "to talk to as many / strangers as one can." Listen. -Norman Finkelstein, author of Track Peter Waldor's poems in Understandings and Misunderstandings invite us to linger within the brightness of the everyday, to celebrate the beauty of human relationships, and to consider the basis of our understanding of one another. Deft and dextrous lines that deliver prim-metered narratives hallmark these poems, as they interrogate the human condition, aiming toward a better way of being in the world, to learning how to be fully present, and to being dedicated to finding joy, reverie, and delight in the ordinary. Waldor invites us to cherish all of what we share with others, and to recognize the way in which we live is singular. "Permit yourself / to dream," he writes, and so we shall. -Carey Salerno, Executive Director, Alice James Books

Understandings and Misunderstandings

Peter Waldor's Beginning Polyamory wears its sexual politics-and preferences-on its sleeve. Part personal ars erotica, part convivial confessional, each poem declares a desire for what is present only to discover something else. -Vanessa Norton

Beginning Polyamory

Peter Waldor’s spare ironysometimes tender, sometimes bawdydeals in dichotomies: love and hate, frailty and strength, fear and faith. These elliptical and colloquial lyrics draw equally from parable, prayer, and elegy. Hesitating on the threshold between isolation and community, the poet focuses a distortingly accurate microscope on what matters in our lives.

Door to a Noisy Room

Alice James Books

An American moment as eavesdropped in diners, casino, and shady back rooms of New Jersey, with the despair and humor the Garden State deserves. Disparate styles told with a singularly strong and just cynical enough voice! I adored every one. 
 ~Matt Katz, Reporter, WNYC &amp; NPR, author of American Governor: Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption 
 Strange things happen when money, business and politics intersect in New Jersey. Waldor's brilliant send-up of the scene here should be read as a cautionary tale for people everywhere. It's the uncanny details that are the most chilling--a handcuff key jingling in a key chain, a governor eating a lozenge, an envelope sliding across a table. I couldn't put this book down. 
 ~Governor Brendan Byrne

State of the Union

Praise for Peter Waldor's Previous BooksPeter Waldor's spare irony, sometimes tender, sometimes bawdy, deals in dichotomies: love and hate, frailty and strength, fear, and faith. These elliptical and colloquial lyrics draw equally from parable, prayer, and elegy. Hesitating on the threshold between isolation and community, the poet focuses a distortedly accurate microscope on what matters in our lives. -Publishers WeeklyIt's such a delight when something catches you by surprise and makes you read on-and on. So it is with Waldor, a superb lyric, gnomic, and gnostic poet.-Gerald SternWhat strange rooms and quirky music Waldor's poems open into, his vision proves to us that the imaginal and rational share equal claims on perception. The heart /mind of this work spiritualizes the material and materializes the soul.-Li-Young LeePeter Waldor's new book combines the unaffected, wise, intimate tone of the old Asian masters, sometimes joyful, sometimes heartbroken, often affectionate, with a tone of his own, a 21st century, 'first world' voice, more jaunty and optimistic-seeming, yet sometimes struggling for breath. -Jean Valentine

Something About the Way

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Waldor, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Waldor, Peter