In his newest collection, In the Eyes of a Dog, published by NYQ Books, Kevin Pilkington takes the reader on a vivid explorative journey. It is a journey that begins in New York City where he lives and where he distills its concrete landscape with an insightful, unexpected use of language and imagery. His Boswellian eye for detail and accuracy of insight continues as he travels to New England, and onto the beaches of California, Mexico, the Caribbean and then to Greece. Each poem in the collection is a discovery transforming the familiar into an individual, unique experience. These poems are personal confrontations with the world and the ultimate inner discovery of what it means to be human. |
|
In a relaxed, observant idiom Kevin Pilkington gives us the neighborhoods and avenues of New York City, its curbside vendors and apartment dwellers, even his own amused self as part of the scheme. But beneath the casual surfaces, in subtle counterpoint, lies this book's anxious knowledge: the busier the streets, the lonelier the life. In the Eyes of a Dog is a bluesy, belated love song—a little dose of O'Hara and a touch of island music—to the one who abides, the city.
—David Baker
There is a wide and magical sky over these beautifully-conceived and choreographed poems—a sky which is sometimes the size of a phone coin, then ice cream cone size, then grows to a vast (still kissable!) expanse. Just as Kevin Pilkington has made this sky his own—each of his poems is its own atmosphere and horizon—like a snowglobe, a dog's unforgettable stare, a surfer's beach that becomes 'a piece of sky to walk home on.'
—Carol Muske-Dukes
|
