Auditioning for Heaven: Poetry

We see in these pages a large and troubled heart observing our time. Like James Wright, Bukowski, and Levine among others. Douglass casts his eye, not cold, but certainly not sentimental, on blue-collar characters. Whether it is the logic of the old-car polluter or the crassness of the pool-hall urinator, the prospect is saddening. Then we see the public theatre-Waco, Oklahoma City, Olympic Park, Kent State, even Maurice Bessinger's Piggy Park-and the wisdom of the child absorbing Juno and the Paycock in "Theatrics" hurts all the more as it stretches our perspective: hatred is "a residual truth." "...beneath the poems' veils, beneath the rancor toward much of the twentieth century, Scott Douglass successfully auditions for this heaven we all ride together. Much is damned in Auditioning for Heaven, but much worth saving about America, including ourselves, resides there too. This is a strong angry book detailing many of our losses. Most beautiful are the moments of peace, of what we have still and can have, of what we are." -Ken McLaurin.Douglass, M. Scott is the author of 'Auditioning for Heaven: Poetry' with ISBN 9781930907072 and ISBN 1930907079.