Droplines
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With a persistent care for his subjects, poems in Droplines are underpinned with tenderness as Fusco honors the sanctity of lives that contains a passion for being…. Humor is woven throughout this mesmerizing collection….. Fusco’s love for subjects, pastand present, darts in and out, slippery as the fish he drops lines to catch. Never peripheral to human experience, Fusco’s poems are centered in the heart.-
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In Droplines, Tony Fusco breathes life and textured detail into his memories of the past. The sounds and smells and places that are connected with his childhood, his ancestors, and all the people he loves and treasures rise from these pages like the immensely satisfying aroma of baking bread. These poems needed to be written and this is a book not to be missed.
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
The old world is refracted through the lens of a sensitiveobserver in these poems. A whole neighborhood populated with colorful characters... is conjured and the consistent narrative voice of the poet reassures us that the simple pleasures of food, music, art and family are still attainable. Tony Fusco’s new book is his own tract in both senses of the word: his plot of land and the tracing his own lineaments.
Ravi Shankar
Tony Fusco has been one of my favorite poets for some time now, a necessary voice in contemporary American poetry, and this new collection drives that value even higher for me. Poem by poem in Droplines, there’s just no doubt you’re reading a poet who’s hit his stride. No matter whether it’s navigating the personal histories of childhood, the deep natural histories of war and art, or the intricacies of religion, these poems are dead-on balanced and so accurate you feel them in your chest. Trust me, anyone who spends some time with these lines will be glad they did.
Jack B. Bedell
You can order Droplines from:
Grayson Books
Tony Fusco |  |
Snakes and the Rumor of Snakes
A twenty foot queen snake lives in the lot next door,
don’t go in there. There are boards with rusty nails
you might step on in the tall grass just over the fence.
Forget that your cousin has thrown so many
of your toys there. Watch out for the old well
somewhere near-abouts, only a thin sheet of plywood
was put on top of it, and that was a long time ago.
Even a thin little boy like yourself would fall right
through and no one could hear you call for help,
if you did. Don’t squeeze the trumpet shaped flowers,
there may be a bee inside, and stay away from the junk
pile behind the new houses, in between the sheet rock
yellow jackets build their nests. Don’t jump up and down
on your mattress, you could hit your head on the ceiling
or worse, bounce out the window cutting major arteries
on the glass. Wait at least thirty minutes after eating
before you go in the water. Keep out of old lady Abernathy’s
yard and her pear trees, she has children tied in her basement
and a house full of canning jars. Don’t walk across a grave,
you’ll cause someone in your family to die within a year.
Play with a cane and you’ll break a leg, sit in a wheelchair,
you’ll get polio. Don’t swim in the lagoon, no matter how
hot a day, weeds will wrap around your ankles, pull you
under. It’s only for your own good to stay away.
Your well being is truly our only concern. Relax.
Now that we have told you these things,
there is no reason to worry.
Ending Meditation
Hatha breath gone, I am a corpse. |  |
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