Tubbables: Poems by John Roche

by John Roche, Jules Nyquist (editor), Denise Weaver Ross (illustrator)

140 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2024

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Dee Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Roche’s latest poetry collection, Tubbables, opens as a delightful exercise in wordplay wherein the poet examines many pleasurable words, tracing their etymology, and creating poems that are insightful, complementary, and fun. These are followed by lovely poems that turn the same detailed examination onto his family history, childhood, and current thoughts on post-modern life. My favorite poems are touching observations of his youth. In “Faint Echoes,” he strains to hear the voices of his relatives preparing for a long-ago holiday while “Sunflower Market Sutra” unveils a remarkable first visit to a natural food store through the eyes of an emerging hippie. Just as the poet explores the derivation of words, he also explores the derivation of his memories, uncovering surprising origins of both. Highly recommended.