Everything We Always Knew Was True

James Galvin

In Everything We Always Knew Was True, James Galvin portrays the solitude, spectacle, and ruggedness of the rural American West in an unsentimentally vulnerable voice. Galvin’s poems document a communion with landscape, questioning humanity’s ability to cope with losses both universal and deeply personal. This book shares honest and ordinary truths earned by an attentive, compassionate, investigative mind.

ISBN: 9781556594922

Format: Paperback

Americanathon

Waiting for the New Ice Age to come along
Like a dawdling child from a previous eon,
Waiting for the homeless man to go on home
With his tired cardboard sign that says, Anything helps,
Waiting for a cure, waiting for the closeout sale,
The black sail, a new tarboosh and a tiny red car,
A new, improved, and safer war,
A harmless war, a war that we could win,
A brain tumor in your smartphone, an entitlement check
(Will you please check on my entitlement?),
Waiting for the bank-hack, the backtrack, the take,
Waiting for a calabash, the calaboose, an acquisition,
An accusation, resuscitation from a total stranger,
Waiting for the finish line to explode.

About the Author

James Galvin was raised in northern Colorado. He has published eight books of poems, most recently Everything We Always Know Was True (Copper Canyon, 2016). He is also the author of the critically acclaimed prose book The Meadow, and the novel Fencing the Sky. His honors include a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, a Lannan Literary Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has a home outside of Tie …

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