This collection of poems by Jim Irons, set in two sections with an interlude and a coda, charts the life of a poet who has lived under the radar most of his adult life. Edgy and dark, these poems-many autobiographical-display wry wit in the vein of Frank O'Hara.
Irons wears his poetic heart on his sleeve-from Lowell to Bukowski to O'Hara to Plath-such influences have informed the life of a poet and teacher. Starting as a jock in high school then moving to a life of job hopping, he has worked many of the jobs poets find themselves doing to pay for food and rent, if not a mortgage. Irons' CV includes thinning trees and fighting fires with the forest service, painting houses, sportswriting, driving a cab in San Francisco and working in a bookstore on Haight and Ashbury, to finally settling into teaching English at the College of Southern Idaho.
While teaching, Irons was chosen as Idaho's Writer in Residence (2001-2004) from a selection panel that included Annie Proulx.
