Piano Music, the new poetry collection from JR Solonche, presents him at his best. The wit, the insights, the playfulness, the craft, the profundity, and yes, at times the silliness, are all here on full display to the delight of the reader, whether that reader be new to the Solonche universe or one returning for more.
Although J.R. Solonche started placing poems in magazine, journals, and anthologies in the early 70s, his first book of poetry, Peach Poems for a Chinese Daughter , co-written with his wife, did not appear until 2002 and his own first collection, Beautiful Day , not until 2015. Just this March, Years Later, his twenty-second book, was published. That's a lot of books, too many for most readers to buy. But they don't have to. They can buy just one. It's his twenty-third. Selected 2002 - 2021 is a generous offering of his favorite poems from most of those books, including the two nominated for the Pulitzer Prize , Invisible (2017) and Piano Music (2020) and the 2020 Shelf Unbound Notable Indie Book, The Porch Poems. In her introduction to Selected 2002-2021 , Grace Cavalieri says, "The absolute best remark I can make about this book is that I would give it to non-readers of poems as a conversion to poetry, for its language is as available as rain; hopeful as sunshine; and fresh as the wind. It's a perfect book to let the reading public know that this is America's poetry. This is a serious book disguised as playfulness, and we are its lucky recipients."J.R. Solonche has published poetry in more than 400 magazines, journals, and anthologies since the early 70s.
Solonche is productive and prolific, but that doesn't water down his poetry... He can compress a philosophical treatise into three lines... His epigrammatic tidy poems are philosophic gems. Solonche sees humor and encapsulates it; he frames a thought in perfect verse... He's playful and profound - the more he writes, the more he seems to know. Beneath the Solonche simplicity are significant social comments, and his goodwill reinforces the best in us.
These short poems are an extraordinary amalgam of wit, close observation, humor, and clear-seeing.
The Moon Is the Capital of the World, the new poetry collection by J.R. Solonche, presents him at his best. His wit, his insights, his playfulness, his craft, his profundity, and yes, at times his silliness, are all here on full display to the delight of the reader, whether that reader be new to the Solonche world or one returning for more.
In Coming To, brevity is the soul of J.R. Solonche's wit.