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Blurbs and Reviews --
John Berryman, Mark Rothko, Edgar
Allan Poe and, above all, Walter Benjamin are presiding spirits of Blue
Cowboy, which is by turns sardonic, perspicacious, poignant, erudite,
night-fallen and desperately funny. Jonathan Vaile’s pyrotechnics
sometimes careen dangerously close to desolation, but then they lift,
spire up and illuminate the darkness.
Peter Klappert, author of Chokecherries: New and Selected
Poems, 1966-1999
Jonathan Vaile’s darkly humorous
poems are energetic and inventive. They explore “the corners of
everything,” his domain the shadowy ends of alleys, bars and corner
markets where he finds his subjects—counterboys and assistant pastors,
mumbling madmen and ladies in housecoats walking their cats—the abject
and forlorn, the dispossessed. He lifts their stories from silence. The
empathetic voice of Blue Cowboy is distinctly his own, part cowboy, part
blues
singer, part philosopher.
Geraldine Connolly, author of Province of Fire
Jonathan Vaile finds his muse in
corners. But all she offers is a peek at the one true lie. Alternately
frustrated and indifferent, Vaile spars with her in syncopated rhythms
and linguistic riffs: “For tonite Sweet/ Poquita we’ll live/ without
limits cruise to/ the drive-through for crackers/ at Jacks...” His is
the plight of the postmodern man, adrift in menace, estranged from the
authentic self. “Oh sweet Lord, if only I could fix/on something fresh
just for once,/ if only I could feel, really feel/ something heavy.” No
easy escape routes here. Despite Vaile’s attempts to find solace in the
great ones—Pessoa, Rothko, Berryman, Walter Benjamin—clarity remains
elusive. This is an unsettling book, a madcap trip past the lip of some
precipice. Best to hold your breath and hang on for dear life—suspended
in the moment just before freefall.
Barbara Goldberg, author of Marvelous Pursuits
About the Author --
Jonathan Vaile has read
and performed his poetry in New York, Chicago, New England, and
extensively in the Washington, D.C. area. His work has appeared in Poet
Lore, Gargoyle, Minimus, Exquisite Corpse, Phoebe, WordWrights! and
Winners: A Retrospective of the Washington Prize, among other magazines
and anthologies.
He is a three-time
Literature Panelist for the Washington, D.C. Commission for the Arts and
Humanities, and he received Literature Fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Humanities in 1994 and 1997. In 1999, he was a member
of The District of Columbia’s Poetry Slam Team, which participated in
the National Poetry Slam in Chicago. He teaches English at a private
school in Washington, D.C. and lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his
wife, Beverley; his son, Johnny; and their terrier, Raccoon. Blue Cowboy
is Jonathan Vaile’s first full-length book of poetry.
Jonathan Vaile
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