Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls

When I stumbled across this book of poetry by J.J. Gallaher I really felt it in the shins. His world of coffee tables and shrubs, stolen moments and love, seems truer, more essentially precious than anything I've read by a young poet in quite some time. These poems are points in time seized by his crisp, clear language; and seized with it are the emotions and thoughts and anxieties and grins and glances and sorrows that I go to poetry for. This is the inner life shared, it hits home.

Dedicated readers of poetry should rejoice in this first collection from John Gallaher. Artfully complex and quietly resonant, these poems, like still-lifes, take their time exploring, exposing, appreciating and interrogating the overly-busy, overly-peopled, and overly-interpreted world from which they spring. Strains of Wallace Stevens, John Ashbery, and even Jorie Graham can be detected in Gallaher's voice, but his project, his perspective, and his wit are ultimately and unmistakably unique. Debut collections as sophisticated and as accomplished as this one are rare. Don't miss it!