The Strange Misgivings of the Sadly Gifted

By Jason O'Toole

Jason O'Toole breaks his heart to show it how big it is. In this tender, uninhibited collection, he defines what it means to be a man in any context-in backseat singing fatherly devotion, in awkward gentleness, in repentant honesty. He extends the image of a man through his son, Alex, flitting across the pages: a young man wanting to be a father, working for dreams, and magnifying the colors of rainbows just by being himself. Just as O'Toole uses soft hands to remember and love, he hardens them to admonish the society ready to hang the innocent from trees-using his softest words to protect them from the sharpest nails. At times a scathing critique, at times a delicious look into the motivations of those around us, this collection is, at its core, a shield of love.

- Willie Carver, author of Gay Poems for Red States, a Book Riot Best Book of 2023, a Read Appalachia Top Ten Best Book of Appalachia, an American Booksellers Association's must-have book of 2022, a 2023 American Library Association Top Ten Over-The-Rainbow book, and a 2024 Stonewall Book Award Honor Book.

THE STRANGE MISGIVINGS OF THE SADLY GIFTED is a torrent of emotions. it begins with the short poem Last Supper and the last line "Do this in memory of me" begins the devastating path of poems from the love that blooms out of Jason's memories for his son Alexander. beautiful and harmonious, loud and sad - this collection is a gorgeous life of poems for a son. i cried love tears, happy tears, sad tears. it is a truth, a memorial and a repercussion, clarified in the poem The Wasting Hands that fatherly poem, the loving poem, the caring poem-the poem that speaks how humans can be demoralized: "They could have known/if they ran a blood test/But trans healthcare/is out of pocket." this collection has so much greatness to it, i want to spill so many lines here. each poem swells inside me like a flooded bank of a river wanting to pull me under so that i can be tossed around. this book tosses you around: "What shall I do with my child's ashes?" the first section is written around the artwork from his son Alexander.

- john compton (b. 1987), author of 17 books/chapbooks, is a gay poet who lives in kentucky with his husband josh and their dogs, cats, and mice. his latest full length book is "my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store" published with Flowersong Press (dec 2024); his latest chapbook is "melancholy arcadia" published with Harbor Editions (april 2024). he has been published in ONE ART more times then he has fingers on one hand.

Jason O'Toole is a poet, former punk vocalist, and advocate for elders and people with disabilities. A former Poet Laureate of North Andover, MA, he serves as treasurer of the Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco. His recent work appears in Another Chicago Magazine, Gargoyle, The Lowell Review, The 2020 Rhysling Anthology, and Love is for All of Us (Storey Publishing). He lives in Massachusetts.

Published by Dead Man's Press Ink, established 1998 in Albany, NY. by R.M. Engelhardt.
https: //deadmanspressink.press/

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F9FYC5ZL
• ISBN13: 9798284411612
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.5" x 11.0"