Böcker av Jim Daniels

"A poetry collection that hunts for meaning in the ordinary and astonishing.Comment Card offers up a world of juxtapositions, searching for equilibrium between the sublime and the mundane: a man watching young lovers kiss while poisoned ants rain down on his porch. A Christmas tree-needle collection and Jimmy Durante. The litter of a three-hole punch and a daughter leaving for college. Tamarinds and the International Space Station. A crushed snail and the Holy Trinity. These poems wonder, how did we get here, and, by the way, where are we?"--

The ghost behind these haunted and haunting poems is the bittersweet and stunningly detailed memory of the poet's formative years in blue-collar Detroit, echoed sometimes in his present home of Pittsburgh. The latter (much less the former) isn't Paris, he admits, but then, "Fuck Paris." With The Human Engine at Dawn, Jim Daniels remains among this country's most gifted and engaging poets.-William Trowbridge, author of Call Me FoolJim Daniels. Singer of the broken city. Ishmael of lost families and foundered dreams. Virgil of what he calls "our poorly wired world." These poems are deep dives into Daniels' past, and a past Detroit. The portraits of his mother and father are unforgettable, both for their blunt, unsentimental honesty and their tenderness. Again and again Daniels manages to unearth bright shards of beauty in the bleak alleyways and poverty-haunted streets of the city. And there's an ode here to his father's bowling ball that will knock you down, that will roll you right back to the smoky, beer-soaked heart of the last century. The Human Engine at Dawn, in its dark and lyrical urgency, reminds me of why I came to poetry in the first place.-George Bilgere, author of Central Air

Brave, honest writing about race and difference by young people trying to make sense of a world in which they encounter discrimination