Suddenly, It's Evening: Selected Poems
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Alan Dugan described Skoyles’s poems as “clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time.” That description holds true for this selection of poems from his previous four books: A Little Faith; Permanent Change; Definition of the Soul, and The Situation. The title, taken from the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo, alludes to the temporal quality of existence, how one moves from sunlight to twilight in the course of a lifetime. And how those evening hours arrive suddenly, as if in no time at all. Praise for John Skoyles: "Economy, intuitively just-so pacing, extra-dry humor, humility, the sense that life doesn't get the rewards it merits, even as it doesn't deserve the punishments it suffers. Best of all for a poet, he's blessed with a perfect ear." —David Rigsbee "Skoyles projects a sharp sense of place and time in an original voice." —The Associated Press "His lyric, compassionate and observant poems simultaneously project a dignity and a modesty which is not quite like any other contemporary poet." —Puerto del Sol "Clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time." —Alan Dugan
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Suddenly, It's Evening: Selected Poems
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Alan Dugan described Skoyles’s poems as “clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time.” That description holds true for this selection of poems from his previous four books: A Little Faith; Permanent Change; Definition of the Soul, and The Situation. The title, taken from the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo, alludes to the temporal quality of existence, how one moves from sunlight to twilight in the course of a lifetime. And how those evening hours arrive suddenly, as if in no time at all. Praise for John Skoyles: "Economy, intuitively just-so pacing, extra-dry humor, humility, the sense that life doesn't get the rewards it merits, even as it doesn't deserve the punishments it suffers. Best of all for a poet, he's blessed with a perfect ear." —David Rigsbee "Skoyles projects a sharp sense of place and time in an original voice." —The Associated Press "His lyric, compassionate and observant poems simultaneously project a dignity and a modesty which is not quite like any other contemporary poet." —Puerto del Sol "Clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time." —Alan Dugan
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Suddenly, It's Evening: Selected Poems

Suddenly, It's Evening: Selected Poems

by John Skoyles
Suddenly, It's Evening: Selected Poems

Suddenly, It's Evening: Selected Poems

by John Skoyles

Overview

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Alan Dugan described Skoyles’s poems as “clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time.” That description holds true for this selection of poems from his previous four books: A Little Faith; Permanent Change; Definition of the Soul, and The Situation. The title, taken from the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo, alludes to the temporal quality of existence, how one moves from sunlight to twilight in the course of a lifetime. And how those evening hours arrive suddenly, as if in no time at all. Praise for John Skoyles: "Economy, intuitively just-so pacing, extra-dry humor, humility, the sense that life doesn't get the rewards it merits, even as it doesn't deserve the punishments it suffers. Best of all for a poet, he's blessed with a perfect ear." —David Rigsbee "Skoyles projects a sharp sense of place and time in an original voice." —The Associated Press "His lyric, compassionate and observant poems simultaneously project a dignity and a modesty which is not quite like any other contemporary poet." —Puerto del Sol "Clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time." —Alan Dugan

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780887486159
Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
Publication date: 10/04/2016
Series: Carnegie Mellon Poetry Series
Pages: 112
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

John Skoyles is the author of eleven previous books, including Suddenly It’s Evening: Selected Poems, and three memoirs: Secret Frequencies, A Moveable Famine, and Driven. He is the poetry editor of Ploughshares.

Table of Contents

From A Little Faith

This Business of Dying 13

In Memoriam 14

If You Have an Enemy 15

Guilt 16

Dear John 17

Burlesque 19

Invective Against Blondes 20

Snowstorm in the Country 21

Knockout 22

No Thank You 23

I Don't Want to Hear Anymore about Love 24

Queens, New York 25

Kilcullen & Murray's 26

Saturday Night & Sunday Morning 27

Hard Work 28

In the Depot 29

From Permanent Change

Good Cheer 33

White Nights 35

Elegy in Autumn 36

My Dead 37

Dark Card 38

Times Square 39

Holy Cross Church 40

Corona Avenue 41

Self-Portrait in Spring 42

On the Train 43

Snowfall 44

The Repairman 45

Front Street 47

The Head of Tasso 48

Symmetry 49

Men Versus Men 50

Against Autumn 51

Night after Night 52

3 a. m. 53

From Definition of the Soul

Definition of the Soul 57

Marina 58

New Year 59

Beacon Hill 60

After Surgery 61

Mop String 62

Unlucky Corner 63

Midlife 65

Elegy for Munro Moore 66

Harry's Train 68

Without Warning 69

The Tears of Mary Magdalene 70

History 71

The Burned Boy 72

Little God 73

Life Itself 74

G 42 75

Cleaning Out a Desk 76

If He Hadn't 77

From The Situation

The Lottery 81

The Wish Mind 82

No Name for It 83

After a Death 84

Academic 85

Song of the Lost and Found 86

Fishing 87

Three Shards 89

Thou Sayest 90

Lilacs 91

The Boy Whose Parents Drink 92

Giovanni Bertolotti 94

Symptomatic 95

In the Radiation Oncology Waiting Room 96

Prayer Without a God 97

The Healer 98

The Situation 99

I Dreamed I Went to Hell with Charles Schwab 100

Uncle Dugan 101

Uncle Grossman 103

I Think Continually of Those Not Asked to Dance 104

Ghazal: My Way 105

Aisle 8 106

Warmest Personal Regards 108

Tinnitus 109

Nothing More 110

Addendum 111

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