THE MOST HONEST SYLLABLE IS SHHH available now from NightBallet Press.
This chapbook contains 23 new poems. Here’s what the experts had to say:
Who else would hand you dreadlocks, a harmonica, and an underspiced tostada? Tim Staley’s gift for playful juxtaposition is on joyful display in The Most Honest Syllable is Shah. In one collection, he throws you a giant squid, a barfing beagle, and someone named Mud Shark. A beer, a blowtorch, and an insult to opera’s pants. Staley drops zen koans into camping stories, and investigates deep divides of gender and class alongside daily dilemmas. His poems are as likely to consider the cosmic—does space smell like searing meat, pine trees, or cherries?—as the domestic: “Certainly I rinsed the vegetables.” In these pieces, the oldest poetic impulses to praise and mourn and cry out meet and marry the off-kilter collage and the party anecdote. Kick off your flip-flops and relax around the campfire with your new, tender-hearted, wacky and wise friend, Tim Staley.
– Dorine Jennette, author of Urchin to Follow
The Most Honest Syllable is Shhh by Tim Staley might just become your new best friend. Take it with you to the bowling alley. Take it with you to the beach. Take it with you to the bar. Take it with you to your grandma’s house. These poems are fun, friendly, generous, and sincere.
-Kyle Flak, author of I am Sorry for Everything in the Whole Entire Universe
