num_pages: 144
description: In this new collection, noted essayist Bill Holm (Coming Home Crazy, Eccentric Islands, The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth) returns to his true love -- poetry. Like a modern-day Walt Whitman bestriding America and the world, Holm comments on the waywardness and promise of the human species. Playing the Black Piano reflects Holm's time in Iceland (his ancestral home), his ongoing love affair with music, a friend's death from AIDS, and his bold reactions to the world around him. Moving from Oregon forests to the deserts around Tucson, from the endless marketing of long-distance telephone service to the experience of undergoing an MRI, the poems speak of this man's full embrace of the world and his passion for living well.
language: English
title: Playing the Black Piano
titlecomplete: Playing the Black Piano
genres: Poetry
ratings_count: 59
publisher: Milkweed Editions