The quote above is from a poem entitled “The Prettiest Smile,” a piece from the second of the book's three main divisions—“Even More Beer Pleasures”—a collection of small press publications from the seventies. It ostensibly covers a time when his grandmother used all of her spare change to skew a “Prettiest Smile” contest judged by the number of coins donated in jars placed by a little boy’s headshots. Like many of his acerbically toned poems, this one can be read as a metaphor for life, literary or poetry contests, and even how we judge beauty. In over ninety poems written in the seventies about ex-wives, American society, football mania, hourly wages, the North Pole, and more, the poet’s oeuvre ranges in tone from skepticism to irony, with occasional notes of despair and subdued rage sprinkled throughout. Aesthetic distance is very thin here, with the poet’s emotions taking the front seat, achieving an honesty and relevance that most “poetry” shies away from.

Starting with a chapbook published in 1977, Sit Down and Have a Beer, the present volume continues with a larger collection of poems from collected small press publications, capping off with three excerpts from the authors’ novel When Life was like a Cucumber. The style is accessible and vernacular, with an unmistakably masculine voice capable of evincing sounds, tastes, and organic textures that can jolt and shock the senses. He creates dreamlike imagery without lapsing into the typical surrealist tropes of modern poetry. The poet has a romantic side, evident in his championing of creativity and expression, but it is perhaps too tempered by an even more pronounced awareness of pain and lack of meaning to flower fully. There is humor too, and a keen perception of people. With his unique voice, this is an American poet worth reading.

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