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I’ve been a big fan of these poems ever since I first heard them, and it was a delight to revisit them this month. These are carefully crafted poems that maintain a colloquial and playfully sarcastic voice, yet somehow are able to retain the ardor of a heart that seeks for the sacred in the little beauties of love, sex, art, and the elegance of well-lived moments. The center-piece of the book is a series of irreverent “Jesus Says” poems that morph into and interact with a series of poems about Maria Callas. There is a richness in the way the Callas poems merge the search for the sacred in beauty, the admiration of the ego and strength of a diva reacting to a callous world, along with nostalgia for the soft refuge of the feminine and the mother. There is a series of innovative poems that use times in YouTube recordings to capture and combine the past, present, and future of moments fixed in time and still living in their inspiration. This book also contains the most interesting Acknowledgments section you will find in a book of poetry! Donnelly combines the unsentimental confrontation with the pains and absurdities of living a gay life in the 21st century with a search for whatever divinity goes beyond and sustains this life better than any poet now writing.
—David Banach, 2023 Sealey Challenge
"Here is a Gospel According to Patrick Donnelly, a book of revelations of what it means to be human, to be hurt, to be awed, to be stunned by our world—and to find love late in life. It is a book of tenderness towards everyone who’s been in pain, everyone who’s been ill, everyone who’s had a mother, loved music, everyone who’s lived on this third planet from the sun."
—Ilya Kaminsky
"The poems in Little-Known Operas delight me with their wit, pathos, expertly executed confusion, and their sincere and exuberant wondering. When Jesus himself does the wondering—“Jesus said, Will someone tell me, please, what this pink grass is called?”—the mystery of creation is exponentially increased, and our poet is left standing in his own world, which turns out to be a galaxy of swirling reflexes.
—Mary Ruefle
Watch the book trailer!
I’ve been a big fan of these poems ever since I first heard them, and it was a delight to revisit them this month. These are carefully crafted poems that maintain a colloquial and playfully sarcastic voice, yet somehow are able to retain the ardor of a heart that seeks for the sacred in the little beauties of love, sex, art, and the elegance of well-lived moments. The center-piece of the book is a series of irreverent “Jesus Says” poems that morph into and interact with a series of poems about Maria Callas. There is a richness in the way the Callas poems merge the search for the sacred in beauty, the admiration of the ego and strength of a diva reacting to a callous world, along with nostalgia for the soft refuge of the feminine and the mother. There is a series of innovative poems that use times in YouTube recordings to capture and combine the past, present, and future of moments fixed in time and still living in their inspiration. This book also contains the most interesting Acknowledgments section you will find in a book of poetry! Donnelly combines the unsentimental confrontation with the pains and absurdities of living a gay life in the 21st century with a search for whatever divinity goes beyond and sustains this life better than any poet now writing.
—David Banach, 2023 Sealey Challenge
"Here is a Gospel According to Patrick Donnelly, a book of revelations of what it means to be human, to be hurt, to be awed, to be stunned by our world—and to find love late in life. It is a book of tenderness towards everyone who’s been in pain, everyone who’s been ill, everyone who’s had a mother, loved music, everyone who’s lived on this third planet from the sun."
—Ilya Kaminsky
"The poems in Little-Known Operas delight me with their wit, pathos, expertly executed confusion, and their sincere and exuberant wondering. When Jesus himself does the wondering—“Jesus said, Will someone tell me, please, what this pink grass is called?”—the mystery of creation is exponentially increased, and our poet is left standing in his own world, which turns out to be a galaxy of swirling reflexes.
—Mary Ruefle