The Great Wheel of Mountain Stone: Poems and Small Fictions about Baseball by Dayn Perry

.

PRAISE:

.

“Dayn Perry writes about America’s pastime with Whitmanesque gusto and the wry intensity of Roberty Bly. In odes upon the unreliability of relief pitchers; or baseball players immortalized on trading cards; or the task of working in a new glove, Perry mixes joy and grief, evoking the vast glamour of America, and its gloomy side, too. This is a book that will be read and reread with delight.”

–Daniel Cowper, poet and author of Kingdom of the Clock and Grotesque Tenderness.

“Baseball has always lent itself to poetry, but the most celebrated baseball poems tend to be about long dead players from the game’s alleged Golden Age. Perry understands that baseball didn’t cease being the stuff of poetry when it ceased to be depicted in sepia tones. He shows us that Adrián Beltré, Craig Kimbrel, and Ichiro are every bit as worthy of the lexicon as Tinker, Evers, and Chance and that Dock Ellis is every bit as mighty as Casey. The Great Wheel of Mountain Stone is a beautiful collection. It could only be written by someone who truly loves and who truly understands the game and what it means to people.”