Maintenance

by William Trowbridge

Maintenance is a sharp, funny, and unflinching look at American life past and present. William Trowbridge writes with clear-eyed wit and deep compassion, turning our everyday messes and momentary wins into acrobatic, virtuosic art. These accomplished poems remind us that maintenance-of language, of history, of ourselves-is both necessary and absurd. A wise, wry, and humane collection, Trowbridge remains one of America's most engaging and generous poetic voices. A joy to read!"

-Elizabeth Powell, author of Atomizer

116 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2025

About the author

William Trowbridge holds a B.A. in Philosophy and an M. A. in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. In April, 2012, he was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of Missouri.

His poems have appeared in more than 30 anthologies and textbooks, as well as in such periodicals as Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, The Georgia Review, Boulevard, The Southern Review, Columbia, Colorado Review, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Epoch, and New Letters. He has given readings and workshops at schools, colleges, bookstores, and literary conferences throughout the United States. His awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholarship, a Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award, and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, Yaddo, and The Anderson Center.

He is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Northwest Missouri State University, where he was an editor of The Laurel Review/GreenTower Press from 1986 to 2004. Now living in Lee’s Summit, MO, he teaches in the University of Nebraska low-residency MFA in writing program.

Reviews

[Alarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit I’m a bit partial to William Trowbridge’s poetry. I probably have all of his books now and often hear him reading at The Writers Place here in Kansas City. But it’s the original, quirky, funny, sometimes sad, too, way he looks at the world in a different way. For me, he won me over with his King Kong poems (before I met him). But he’s recently moved not only back into irony, but goes back to long ago memories, as we all often do.

I especially enjoyed this collection because he took us back in time to childhood. At our age, we not only enjoy reminiscing, but pull back our own memories. I won’t spoil the fun by reading too many samples.

He begins with childhood memories, not always fond ones, of course.

I DIDN’T KNOW

that zits and braces were just for starters.

that bald-in-back Miss Harper’s Bible class,
in “Fellowship Hall,” which smelled of
mildew and stale tomato sauce. would be
like water torture you had to dress up for.

that for “choose partners” at the 7th grade dance,
I’d get stuck back to shyness, with the last girl
unchosen, forlorn in her muumuu smock…
who, after losing wight, would become
class beauty and walk right through me…