Saltwort

By Joe Linker

Book Overview

SALT-SPRITZED AND WEATHERED, there is a seasoned quality to the writing in "Saltwort," a fifty-year collection (1967-2017). From the surf-washed beaches of 1960s California to the "red dust" of the modern business world, these poems and prose pieces find the extraordinary in the mundane: a plumber's van with a shelf for books among the tools, the ritual of Army coffee, the "frizzled" harvest of a pumpkin patch, and the quiet vertigo of an urgent care waiting room.

FROM GRITTY REALISM TO SURREAL JAZZ RIFFS, the language of "Saltwort" is attuned to the music of the sentence. Whether riffing on Kafka or baseball, the voice remains unfiltered and honest. The collection features a delightful blend of humor, satire, and irony-including a sestina featuring Charles Bukowski, a form the "brewed bard" likely never used, which transforms into a lyrical, gutter-full beauty. Guided by a foreword from Salvador Persequi (of "Penina's Letters"), the reader is invited to take shoes off and paddle out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1542768977
• ISBN13: 9781542768979
• Release Date: February 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"