Red Walls

Poetry. "I like the vivid lines that James Tolan is able to produce. He knows how to hold onto the hog and let go at the right moment"—Robert Bly. "From the wellspring of a ramshackle youth emerges a poet capable of great empathy, whose eloquence is embodied in reticent, measured, sensuous verse. This poet resurrects the catastrophe of childhood with hard-won insight. Yet even the wise poet might not get inside of us and seize us. James Tolan, though, does and, in his wisdom, realizes that memory is always in danger from the words meant to perpetuate it. His attention to craft is what allows for his knifing, unforgettable testimony. I wonder what word in this extraordinary collection can be done without"—Burt Kimmelman.