Tornadoesque

by Donald Platt

Through Platt’s trademark of alternating long and short lines, and through occasional lyric prose, Tornadoesque becomes a weather report from middle age, as the poet discovers his bisexuality in a heterosexual marriage of longstanding passion, responds to war in the Middle East and the deaths and illnesses of friends, and gives an eyewitness account of what is lost and what’s saved when a tornado touches down.

156 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2016

About the author

Donald Platt is a poet and English professor at Purdue University, awarded a 2011 NEA Poetry Fellowship.

Reviews

[Maren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly cannot believe I was lucky enough to have Platt as my professor for three (!!!) semesters. Reading his work even teaches you something about poetry. I guess I am just another Purdue graduate in a long line of Purdue graduates in the Platt fan club.

[willowdog · Rating 5 out of 5]

If poets are to make one see things in a different light and introduce you to new things, Donald does that. When he spoke of various art works, I wanted to see them--the same with the music he alluded to. Images of gay men are there in the poems. Can you be bisexual and never have been with a man? His work is very autobiographical—his daughter who goes to live in Mexico and his other daughter who suffers from an extreme case of bipolar. Actually really loved the poems.