Songs for Solo Voice

by James R. Whitley

Overview

Poetry. Winner of the Red Mountain Poetry Prize. In SONGS FOR SOLO VOICE, award-winning poet James R. Whitley trains his artistic sights unflinchingly on the experiences of desire, betrayal, loss, and other matters of the heart. Throughout this breathtaking collection, the poems radiate an undeniable heat even as they continue their exacting investigation with a cool lucidity. Vaulting expertly through a wide array of poetic forms, the collection reveals a creative spirit at play, despite the serious subject matter. With uplifting music and a distinctive voice, the poet gifts us with these able-bodied verses, these sturdy songs of resilience to guide us through the wreckage of relationships gone wrong and mine the debris for enduring nuggets of hope.

"SONGS FOR SOLO VOICE reminds us, 'when it comes to loss/none of us is immune.' Here the particular loss is the end of an affair, a searing wound that takes a long time to heal, if ever, a theme almost as old as lyric poetry itself which Whitley, like a modern-day Petrarch, revives in his own striking, sardonic, and inimitable way. If 'the music of never forgetting her' has become 'the score of the rest of his life' so be it: he may write about loss as much as he needs to, while I, liking his work enormously, somehow feel joy."--Alan Feldman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781952204067
Publisher:	Red Mountain Press
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	68
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

James R. Whitley was born in Mount Vernon, New York and holds degrees from Cornell, Boston, Harvard and Northeastern universities. His poetry has been widely published in literary journals and nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net. His first book, Immersion, won the 2001 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. His second book, This Is the Red Door, won both the Ironweed Poetry Prize and a 2009 Massachusetts Book Award. His third book, The Goddess of Goodbye, written in homage to his mother, was published by Word Press in 2010. He is also the author of two poetry chapbooks—Pietà and The Golden Web. Currently, he serves as a Dean at Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

I 7

How to Talk Your Way Through Abandonment 9

Overture 11

Halved, Then Quartered 12

Piazza San Marco, 1996 13

Retrospective 14

Through the Gloaming 16

Souvenir 17

Thirteen Ways to Deny an Ending 19

Sostenuto 21

Quite Taken 22

Here 23

II 25

Stop Me If You Think 27

Contemplative 28

Sometimes a Light 29

An Explication 30

Recovery Ghazal 32

Raw 33

Excursion Into Philosophy 34

Sonoran Desert, 1998 36

Aubade, With Recurring Jay 38

Someone Fell: A Calendelle 39

Excerpts From a Survivor's Journal 40

Here, Finally 44

III 45

Trembling Deliriously 47

An Epilogue 48

Inside the Story of It 50

The Farmer and the Snake 52

Recurring Nightmare 54

Another Raven-Haired Imbroglio 56

Reflection of Little to No Consequence 57

She Hangs Brightly 58

Gingerly 60

Restorative 61

Here, Finally, a Plausible Theory 62

IV 63

Coda 65

Notes 67

Acknowledgments 68

Editorial Reviews

2021-04-12
A collection of poetry explores matters of the heart.

This brief but weighty volume of poems circles around themes of love, loss, grief, and nostalgia. Whitley begins with “How to Talk Your Way Through Abandonment,” using repetition of the command “Say” to put readers in an introspective trance. In “Piazza San Marco, 1996,” the poet describes a photograph of a couple feeding pigeons in Italy and “the chaos of so many eager wings.” He writes of the irresistible temptation to look back on the past in “Retrospective.” In “Souvenir,” the speaker wonders if he can alter the course of his relationship history after the fact. “Thirteen Ways To Deny an Ending” imagines clever ways to prevent a breakup. The poet contemplates the power (or lack thereof) of talismans in the face of grief in “Here.” He makes a stilted attempt at moving on in “Stop Me If You Think.” In “Contemplative,” he acknowledges the struggle of letting go: “The slipknot that is the heart / doggedly thumps out its plea, / release, release.” A delightful, drunken, and laughter-filled night is the focus of “Reflection of Little to No Consequence.” Throughout, Whitley deftly draws on biblical, mythical, and literary references to flesh out his text. The author is a talented wordsmith. His language is mellifluous, as when he writes of “unstoppable slippage,” “indiscretion’s dusty carcass,” and a “sucrose and cinnamon girl.” He paints vivid scenes with lines like “Overhead, the blasé moon hangs / like a luminous wrecking ball.” Whitley accurately captures the deliciousness of longing; remembering a lover, he admits to “adding salt and lemon to my morning coffee / so as not to lose my taste for you completely.” The collection loses its way when the poet experiments with an aubade, a calendelle, and journal excerpts. But Whitley soon finds his way back to the intimate, tender musings of a heartbroken man: “This is just the music / of never-forgetting-her, / the score of the rest of your life.”

An erudite and sensual meditation on desire and a relationship’s demise.

Kirkus Reviews