Joshua Young, author of To the Chapel of Light, fuels his love of poetry with:
Robinson Alone A good book of poetry is not hard to find—there’s so much out there right now. But Kathleen Rooney’s novel in verse, Robinson Alone, is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Full disclosure: we are pressmates. But that’s not why I love this book. It feels like a conversation between the reader and the speaker, Robinson. Rooney takes the voice of Robinson (the creation of the poet Weldon Kees, who disappeared July 19, 1955—his car was found deserted on the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge) and constructs a coast-to-coast journey, filling the gaps Kees never got the chance to. Though the narrative is fixed, the poems re-create Robinson’s character honestly. Rooney is a Chicago poet and writer, and I recommend getting out there to see her read—she wears a fake mustache.
