James Sallis

after attending Tulane University, moved to London in the mid-60s and edited the legendary magazine New Worlds. Author of the much acclaimed Lew Griffin novels, his shorter work continues to be publis...

Sorrow's Kitchen
Poems by James Sallis

James Sallis

Slightly surrealistic, meditative, elegiac, this collection of poetry from author James Sallis is concerned with aging, relationships, loss, and love. It is poetry written and read late at night and in the early morning hours, when, sleepless, we think about life and what went wrong. Sallis is a noir genre mystery writer and the feeling of that genre is evident here-despair that is occasionally surprised by joy. For these poems are not dark and depressing, despite the subject matter; they are suffused with happiness, with the celebration of everyday events. They are the reflections of an author in full command of the language, who fully recognizes life's triumphs as well as life's losses.

OLD POEMS

We pass on the street 
and do not recognize one another.  
We sit side by side at a bar  
talking for hours, saying nothing.  
You want a refill, hon? asks  
the waitress in her pocket-sprung apron.  
Beautiful day, this old poem of mine 
tells me as we walk by the river.  
Out on a wide belt of water  
boats eclipse one another. 
I have no idea what he's talking about.