One Wild and Precious Life

By Ron Carlisi

At 83, Ron Carlisi has lived enough life to fill a universe and he has poured every drop of it into verse.

One Wild and Precious Life is a deeply personal collection of free verse poetry spanning decades of human experience: love and marriage, sobriety and struggle, aging and identity, grief and gratitude, politics and purpose, and the devastating loss of a beloved son. Written by a man who has been journaling and writing poetry since the 1960s, these poems carry the weight of genuine living unpolished, unflinching, and beautifully human.

From the raw anger of "ANGERRAGE" to the quiet tenderness of "A Place to Come Home to," from the philosophical wondering of "Supposin'" to the heartbreaking tribute to his son Christian, who passed away in 2008, Carlisi writes the way most people only think honestly, openly, and without apology.

Threaded throughout is a lifelong observer's eye: a man who watched people, countries, and himself make choices both wise and insane, and who never stopped asking why. These poems do not offer easy answers. They offer something rarer honest company through the beautiful, painful, ordinary miracle of being alive.

For readers who love poetry rooted in real life, One Wild and Precious Life is a reminder that every ordinary moment is worth witnessing, and every hard-won lesson is worth passing on.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1968732640
• ISBN13: 9781968732646
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Heritage Book Publishing
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"