Kevin Gallagher

Radio Plays Kevin Gallagher

Poetry. In the hectic age of decentralized podcasts, the idea of the radio play takes on a new urgency and vitality. In these dramatic monologues and vignettes, Kevin Gallagher has created a set of serial poems with amazing poetic flexibility. Full of narrative invention and intimate portraits of humble lives, these talking sonnets call to mind the oral tradition of the ballad as well. They shimmy with a deft, agile vernacular, carrying echoes of Williams and Olson and even E. A. Robinson. You know what they say about you our way? / That the Grand Banks send waves that gallop // on green horses with white manes, Freddy said, / that the boats swing hilariously // between crests and troughs like empty hammocks / in fierce winds... Richly textured and closely observed, these marvelous poems sing vividly the felt experience of a way of life that may already be disappearing.--Patrick Pritchett