William Trowbridge's newest collection of poetry can be distilled in the opening lines of "Kong Meets Godzilla," a lunch date between the famous movie monsters: "I was eating lunchware at the commissary/ when he called me over to his table/ and offered a seat." Trowbridge's poems aren't sacramental enigmas that one has to decipher. They're funny. They're strange. They're approachable. This is poetry that's warm and welcoming.
Poet Laureate of Missouri, Trowbridge has published five other poetry collections (Ship of Fool, Enter Dark Stranger). With Put This On, Please, he's included work from all those collections plus new ones. Peppered with pop-culture references, his poems might seem slight or unimportant, but they aren't. He easily captures the rhythm and hum of everyday life. Discussing Buster Keaton or Chuck Berry, King Kong or Wile E. Coyote, Trowbridge wittily explores our need for fulfillment and our failures in finding it.
Examining the human condition using Tilt-A-Whirls, The Maltese Falcon and James Dean is no easy feat. Trowbridge succeeds--making readers smile while plumbing something deeper than a giggle. "So here we stand, crossed up in time's unfunny/ funhouse, exclaiming, shaking hands," he writes in "Encounter at an Out-of-Town Bar."
Plainspoken Trowbridge extends his hand to readers with this collection. You'd do well to take him up on his offer. --Jonathan Shipley, freelance writer