Go

by Brendan Walsh

The poetry in 'Go' grapples with nothingness, the primal ecstasy of movement, and the variance of human consciousness and desire. The focus begins on Lao voices--those of a foreign speaker interacting with Lao monks and women planting rice, a quiet observation of an unknown but familiar place. It moves to South Korea, inhabiting the voices of two Koreans and an outsider at odds with a foreign culture. Finally, the collection ends in the United States, the former home of a speaker who feels empty but sees flashes of brilliance on road trips and in day-to-day life. Ultimately, the collection reconciles its longing with movement, finding answers outside of concrete explanations, but through the act of doing and being purely in the flesh.

104 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

Brendan Walsh has been an English Instructor in South Korea, a Fulbright English teacher in Laos, and an aimless vagabond throughout the United States. After graduating from Hartwick College, he went on to earn his MFA from Southern Connecticut State University. He now lives in South Florida to sate his palm tree needs. Walsh has been a featured reader at The New American Writing Festival and the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival's Connecticut Young Poets Day. His poems have appeared in The Connecticut Review, Cobalt Review, and elsewhere. When he is not training for amateur Strongman competitions or writing poems, his life is a cycle of existential crises and brilliant epiphanies.

Reviews

[Leah Angstman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely, sincere collection. Mostly about travel to Laos, Korea, and around the U.S, this collection covers observances ranging from monks to temples to sex to bar life to rice fields to back home again. It's got moments that will make you laugh, and heartbreaking moments that will tug at you and linger long after the book is done. Above all, Walsh can craft a great visual, stirring image, perfect line. Highly recommended, and especially good for lovers of poetry + travel.