Lucky Bones (Pitt Poetry Series) - Award-Winning Poetry Collection for Literature Lovers | Perfect for Book Clubs, Gifts & Personal Reading

“I would like to live like a river flows,carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” John O’Donohue, “Fluent” from Conamara Blues.When I saw this quote, I thought of Peter Meinke’s writing and life as represented by his latest book from the Pitt Poetry Series titled “Lucky Bones.” The work surprises the reader at every turn, and I think it sometimes surprised the writer too, though one would have to ask. F. Scott Fitzgerald said “There are no second acts in American lives.” He, too, would be surprised at the number of decades represented by this amazing writer who approaches each one with wit, wisdom and a voice that is his alone.In this book, we are privileged to immerse ourselves in the deceptively simple creativity of a man who lives life fully engaged with past, present and future. No silliness or pomposity escapes his wickedly sharp, yet fully compassionate, observation. One reviewer said, “Many of his poetic commentaries Meinke delivers in formalist verse with a cunning dry wit that both elucidates and cautions.” The reader who is coming to poetry for the first time would find the energy, emotion and story in these pieces without any need to know the limitations of the form.These poems are brewed in a particular soup of history, science, observation, humor, poetic beauty and both anger and a tender-hearted empathy for the human condition. Meinke’s passage through the decades—“looking hard and singing loud we rode the bus/from Flatbush Avenue to Ebbets Field” (from “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”) to “Now my blood is dust/but still my slower pulse/throbs to the beat of lust/with less results” (from “The Lover”)—will echo long after this book is back on your shelf.Peter Meinke is the winner of numerous prestigious prizes, is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Eckerd College and the first Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida. A life-long teacher and traveler with his wife Jeanne, who created the cover, he sees the world as it is, strips it naked with his wit and then wraps it in a shawl of possibilities. I go along for the ride, experiencing immersion in the poet’s world, forgetting about the unbelievable skill required to build it. This book will lead you to explore more deeply. The last poem is titled “Epitaph” and contains these lines: “Still he dreams as you pass by/although you may be far from home/that if you pause to read this poem/the leaves might nod and understand.”