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This generous selection of John Repp's poetry showcases his gifts: creating a brilliant sense of immediacy from the past, his hunger for luscious observation, his wisdom about nature and community, work and home, son-hood and fatherhood...Long may Repp’s music blast!" Robert Hamberger, author of A Length of Road: Finding Myself in the Footsteps of John Clare, John Murray Press/Hachette UK With 10-gauge steel strings, Repp solos electric in images that shred until we are heart-deep in the bodies of real people. He’s an intellectual, and he’s salt-of-the-earth--an endangered species." Jan Beatty, author of Dragstripping, University of Pittsburgh Press Henry James was probably right when he wrote that 'we work in the dark.' But he was also right about some writers when he added, 'we give what we have.' John Repp has given us a great gift in this book, a gift that I, for one, will cherish." Keith Taylor, author of The Bird-while, Wayne State University Press This book is the history of a generation...I give The Soul of Rock & Roll a ten--the words are great, and it’s easy to dance to." Elizabeth Kerlikowske, author of Dominant Hand, Mayapple Press |
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I know I'm holding a good book in my hand when I use the other to call my friends and read poems to them...Oh, and these poems make me do something else that the good ones always do: when I hung up after reading 'Bob Johnson' or 'The Maltese Falcon' or 'Balcony' to a friend, I sat down to write myself." David Kirby, National Book Award Finalist for The House on Boulevard St., Louisiana State University Press When 'Blueberry (or "Another Summer-of-1975 Poem")'--one of the best narrative poems anywhere--urges you to 'Gather with me in the kitchen where the floorboards/sag & squeak...' accept the invitation. You will return to Fat Jersey Blues often, grateful to be reminded how rare and essential poets of John Repp's caliber are." Linda Lee Harper, author of Kiss, Kiss, Cleveland State University Poetry Center As American as this book is, Proust comes to mind when reading it, time slowed to the tempo of a wide river sweeping all that is mortal toward its inevitable end." Lynn Emanuel, author of Transcript of the Disappearance, Exact and Diminishing, University of Pittsburgh Press |
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These are stories firmly located in the American landscape of social class and struggle, stories of people operating on the margins, struggling to get by, struggling to define what 'getting by' means...We know these people, and through these stories, we know their bruised hearts." Jim Ray Daniels, author of The Luck of the Fall, Michigan State University Press |
Out of print.
Click image to order. 
Click image to order. |
Come near, these poems sing, and see the skin of the elephant of Margate: 'a mossy glade/or close enough' and grow the basil, drink the wine, bless the child and the lover, work and read the wild life long." Judith Vollmer, author of The Sound Boat, University of Wisconsin Press The language throughout is tough, concrete, and personal, a long-meditated diction, expertly culled, gathered into verse, lifted into song." Jay Parini, author of New and Collected Poems: 1975-2015, Beacon Press John Repp's consciousness can seek out the most shabby and plastic of our 21st- century American details...What a comprehensive collection of poems, heartfelt and smart about our human confusions!" Albert Goldbarth, two-time winner of the National Book Critics' Circle Award in Poetry The raw stink, sex, and stun of these poems brace us for our past, which is to say, every day, from first to last." Kathy Fagan, author of Bad Hobby, Milkweed Editions "Haunted by memory, Repp has the verbal accuracy and wit to find what is rare and necessary, details that allow him to be faithful to moments that 'fan the mean ember into flame,' whether remembering baseball or fishing, his mother's 'mad' garden, duets with his brother, whether moving trenchantly through a young man's romance with ideas political or amorous. His idiom is earthy, witty, and his own." Margaret Gibson, Connecticut Poet Laureate and author of Draw Me Without Boundaries, Louisiana State University Press |