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Second Adolescence
FROM DEBUT POET JOE ROLNICKI comes a disarming collection about dishonesty, identity, and purpose.
Feeling like an impostor at 33, Rolnicki left his first career and moved across the country to live with his best friend from high school. The next two years were a chaotic dash of daily confessions from a former mid-level manager succumbing to the rich windfall of expression hidden behind poetry and isolation -- tattoos, booze, and sex.
Second Adolescence is a companion piece for anyone starting over while combating the tag team of mortality and mental health; anyone shaking off their old stories en route to a new take on adulthood.
“A roving, rhythmic, rebellious collection that puts the “life” in “third-life crisis,” Second Adolescence is both unflinching and forward-facing. Not a single confession, internal rhyme, or mote of inspiration goes unexplored in Rolnicki’s verse as we follow the speaker on his journey of self-actualization, reveling in the hope that it is never too late - or too early - for a reinvention.”
- T.S. Priest, writer @agirlcalledthomas
“Second Adolescence is hilarious, clever, and staggeringly honest about the realities of starting over. Rolnicki writes the kind of poetry that somehow makes you feel less alone.”
- Caitlin Thomson, writer @cait.t.poetry
“Reading Joe's work is akin to taking a walk down meandering streets on a pleasant summer night. You don't go on this journey with an end goal in mind but for the surprising insights, funny observations, and oftentimes deliciously dark, endearing, and weirdly reassuring reflections that his words immerse you in.”
-Akanksha Gupta, writer @madmedleys
Feeling like an impostor at 33, Rolnicki left his first career and moved across the country to live with his best friend from high school. The next two years were a chaotic dash of daily confessions from a former mid-level manager succumbing to the rich windfall of expression hidden behind poetry and isolation -- tattoos, booze, and sex.
Second Adolescence is a companion piece for anyone starting over while combating the tag team of mortality and mental health; anyone shaking off their old stories en route to a new take on adulthood.
“A roving, rhythmic, rebellious collection that puts the “life” in “third-life crisis,” Second Adolescence is both unflinching and forward-facing. Not a single confession, internal rhyme, or mote of inspiration goes unexplored in Rolnicki’s verse as we follow the speaker on his journey of self-actualization, reveling in the hope that it is never too late - or too early - for a reinvention.”
- T.S. Priest, writer @agirlcalledthomas
“Second Adolescence is hilarious, clever, and staggeringly honest about the realities of starting over. Rolnicki writes the kind of poetry that somehow makes you feel less alone.”
- Caitlin Thomson, writer @cait.t.poetry
“Reading Joe's work is akin to taking a walk down meandering streets on a pleasant summer night. You don't go on this journey with an end goal in mind but for the surprising insights, funny observations, and oftentimes deliciously dark, endearing, and weirdly reassuring reflections that his words immerse you in.”
-Akanksha Gupta, writer @madmedleys
126 pages, Paperback
Published February 18, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 9, 2023
A window inside
This collection provides a window inside a man who is transforming. He is still in a cacoon, writing poetry for us on the outside. See this man in the middle of change but don't expect to learn where it all ends yet.
This collection provides a window inside a man who is transforming. He is still in a cacoon, writing poetry for us on the outside. See this man in the middle of change but don't expect to learn where it all ends yet.
November 17, 2022
Self-loathing at its finest, extending to self-awareness governed by cynicism, Joe Rolnicki takes us on a slow-moving rusty roller coaster ride to hell and back to find out that he is the storm in his “big dumb lump of time.” Pressing forward through a sea of debris, his raw observations of life are jolting, sad, inspiring, and frightening, yet disturbingly humorous – a continuous reminder that we are only a guest here. And then…there is love. I'm sold!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews