For All I Know

Solonche is productive and prolific, but that doesn’t water down his poetry. He can compress a philosophical treatise into three lines. His tidy epigrammatic poems are philosophic gems. Solonche sees humor and encapsulates it; he frames a thought in perfect verse. He’s playful and profound—the more he writes, the more he seems to know. Beneath the Solonche simplicity are significant social comments, and his goodwill reinforces the best in us.

Grace Cavalieri, Washington Independent Review of Books

In a style that favors brevity and pith, J.R. Solonche brings a richness of experience, observation, and wit into his poems. Here is the world! They exclaim. And here, and here, and here! Watched over by ancient lyric gods—Time, Death, and Desire—we find the quotidian here transformed.

Christopher Nelson, editor of Green Linden Press

J.R.Solonche’s many books of poetry, one nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, reveal a wry and vivid wit, a sharp but sympathetic eye, and a respect for the homely but significant detail, all wedded to an acute social and cultural consciousness. In his imaginative progress through city streets and country roads, the commonplace becomes extraordinary. In lines full of mischief or romance, gaiety, or grief, he is the poet of the every day, spent on earth or in an imaginary heaven.

Judith Farr is the author of What Lies Beyond: Poems and The Passion of Emily Dickinson

The spirit of Horace, the melancholy of time slithering away and turning all to dust, tempered with art, wit, and good grace.

Ricardo Nirenberg, editor of Offcourse: A Literary Journal