John Surowiecki's The Place of the Solitaires: Poems from Titles by Wallace Stevens (Wolfson) is his fourteenth book of poetry. His fifteenth, Chez Pétrouchka, gives the puppet of Strravinsky's ballet—a nasty vulgar creature—a voice and platform. The chapbook will be published by will be published by Bass Clef Books.

Other poems by John Surowiecki in Verse Daily:
April 2, 2022:   "An Old Man Asleep" "Volcanoes spit out clouds of teachers...."

Books by John Surowiecki:

Other poems on the web by John Surowiecki:
Four poems
Two poems
"The Place of the Solitaires"
"Vodka Martini a la Menelaus"
"The Wisest Aunt, Telling The Saddest Tales"
"Catbird v. Mockingbird"

John Surowiecki's Website.

About The Place of the Solitaires:

"John Surowiecki uses Stevens' titles as a bird might use the tip of a branch, to spring more effortlessly into flight. These poems are finely nuanced meditations and lyric evocations. The Stevens title may remain as a wind that inflects the course of the poem which follows, but Surowiecki is clearly steering these poems to his own will and whim. The memories, the people, the daily incidents and accidents are all Surowiecki's, all rendered with graceful phrasings and the profound engagement of a poet who knows 'what thoughts have escaped him / and flown away—fly away still— / never rooted in speech'."
—James Finnegan

"Wallace Stevens looms large. Yet 'his river was never quite ours', Surowiecki asserts, and goes on to present a different Connecticut, a state of 'sidewalk milkweeds', city buses, shadowy bars, and most gloriously — ordinary, everyday people. These poems step out from Stevens's shadow and dazzle us with their light."
—Shelley Puhak