Everything

Praise for Everything

J.R. Solonche can paint a picture or sum up a mood in a few broad strokes. He can be joyful, reflective, or wry, but he's always mindful of the absurdities in life and never leaves his reader behind. I admire his lightness of touch, his lack of pretension and his commitment to simplicity, especially when life feels complicated.

- Amanda Holmes Duffy

The tone is established from the outset: wry, wise, sardonic and playful, drawing the reader irresistibly in. Solonche is revealed as a philosopher in the mould of Wittgenstein: aphoristic, charismatic, acerbic and oddly mystical. If you met this book in a bar, you would definitely want to take it home with you and every day thereafter congratulate yourself on how lucky you've been. But that is true of all his books.

- David Mark Williams

According to Lord Polonius in Hamlet, "brevity is the soul of wit." In the poetry of J.R. Solonche, brevity, soul, and wit co-exist superbly. Start with any of his poems. You'll find, unlike much of what is written these days, the wit is never far from the surface. As for the brevity, imagine an appetizer that's as filling as a main course. And, after the meal, after the laughter, the soul will be what lingers.

- John Grey

Nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, twice for the National Book Award and three times for the Pulitzer Prize, J.R. Solonche is the author of more than 50 books of poetry and coauthor of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.