There’s an edgy discernment in these poems, built on rage, impatience, and a deep generosity towards brokenness. “Broken” is where a boy’s sentience began, and the means by which powerful poetry has evolved from the man.Walk-up music is a snippet of song that identifies a batter as he approaches the box. In this collection baseball becomes a trope for a form of life in which failing two-thirds of your at-bats is a great performance. As so often in the Majors, in Watsky’s poems we encounter cycles of regression, aggression, redemption, and renewal, knit together by an unshakeable faith in the (human) team.From his self-creation tale—“You Musta Loved It as a Kid”—to the poem that hinges the book—“The Absurd: An Invocation”—this poet throws heat: unhittable riffs of lyric vernacular that strike you out watching. And make you want more.So many poems in Walk-Up Music stop me in my tracks, as if I’d just come upon fresh chalk marks in the shape of a man at an accident scene. But the man walked away: scathed, extraordinary, a poet. —Dawn McGuire, M.Div., M.D., author of The Aphasia CafePaul Watsky writes with vigor and wit. Carrying the dust of experience on their boots, his poems ring, all the more, with conviction. —Elizabeth Chapman, author of Light Thickens

Walk-Up Music

Literature & Fiction

Watsky, Paul

Poetry

il piccolo editions

<p>"To quote Norman O. Brown quoting Euripedes, "God made an opening for the unexpected," and at long last we have what many of us have greatly desired: a collection of poems by Paul Watsky. His is a singular voice in contemporary poetry, with a range that encompasses the wry, the mordant, the laugh-out-loud funny and the deeply moving, often within the same poem. One of Ovid's earliest critics complained that he did not know when to leave well enough alone. In this he resembles the eponymous hero of Watsky's "The Magnificent Goldstein," and, come to think of it, Watsky himself, for which we have cause to rejoice." -Charles Martin _____________________________________________"We meet an observant poet telling a story, his story: wryly perceived incidents of family and history-all given with elegance, wit, and intimacy. A concise, carefully crafted, timely view of the world." -Joanne Kyger</p>

Telling the Difference

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

Books by Watsky, Paul

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

Walk-Up Music

Telling the Difference