Late for the Gratitude Meeting

"In the end of days what you need is a good first line"--like that one, and the first lines in so many of these exuberant, confident poems in Paul Hostovsky's tenth collection. It is tempting to quote many great lines from these poems, but they deserve to be discovered in the contexts of their own fine explorations, as Hostovsky's ideas can turn on a dime, revealing perfect surprises. He both exhorts us not to miss the small miracles in our often quotidian lives and introduces us to lives most of us do not know well, such as his extraordinary insights gleaned from work as a sign language interpreter. In the end, here we are, "just standing here all alone like a verb/ of being," eager to see where this terrific mind will take us next.

Steve Straight, author of The Almanac (Curbstone/Northwestern)

A Paul Hostovsky poem has a way of welcoming you in, swinging the door wide open andmaking you comfortable, ready for anything. There will be surprises, some poems turning you gently one way and then another, others "bungee jumping boing-boing off the walls and ceiling... leaping singing windmilling right out the door." Poets don't have agents. But if I were an agent I'd represent Paul Hostovsky's poems and sell the movie rights.

Sally Fisher, author of Good Question (Bright Hill Press)

Paul Hostovsky's amiable voice, wry humor, and snappy wordplay are on full display in this new collection. But the humor and verbal gymnastics serve a larger purpose: poem after poem shows us that even the smallest events of everyday life are both (and often simultaneously) wondrous and absurd, beautiful and ugly, simple and complex. Above all, the poems remind us that life is a wide-angle "spectacular view" to be grateful for. And as the title poem vividly illustrates, it is never too late for gratitude, no matter how difficult or delayed it may be. When you read this book, you'll be grateful for it, immediately.

Eric Nelson, author of Some Wonder (Gival Press)