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The poems in Outlaw Odes, Garrett Phelan’s fine first book, balance deftly on a high wire stretched between life within and without the law, between distrust of the establishment and a passionate defense of all those treated unfairly by circumstance. As the speaker in “Hard-Assed” says about the narrator of these poems, “I know how sensitive you are / under that cool, snippy, hard-assed exterior.” Lisa Starr remembers the first time she experienced a Garrett Phelan poem: “I was racing through my dining room during a Block Island Poetry Project weekend, tending to the myriad details of running the series. The poem careened me into a u-turn, and I walked back in to listen a little better. The others at the table were as stricken by it as I was. Heads were tilted; many had that light in the eyes we get when someone has taught us something we never knew was out there for us to learn.” She praises the poems in Outlaw Odes for telling “stories about and for those who never got to say them themselves—the immigrant grandmothers, the invisible man working the chrome- plating line, beautiful Mauricio with his necessary knives. Welcome to the world of Garrett Phelan. This is a poet who commands attention; this is an outlaw poet if ever there was one.” And this from Coleman Barks: “Garrett Phelan’s poetry tries to let the poet disappear. His voice is so clear and strong it takes us to the verge of that happening.”
From chicken farmer, fruit picker, and batik artist, to Peace Corps volunteer and teacher, Garrett Phelan has lived and worked in Israel, Ireland, El Salvador, Guatemala, and England. He lived and taught for thirty-five years in the Washington, DC area, culminating in his appointment as master teacher and principal of César Chávez Public Charter High School. His commentaries on “Leadership Perspective” were included in The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools. Garrett has taught creative writing under the auspices of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington National Opera, and a variety of other organizations. He presently teaches creative writing in one of Connecticut’s prisons. Garrett received a BA in Psychology from Central Connecticut State University. In addition, he has received two advanced teaching certificates. His poems have appeared in many publications and in the anthology Poetic Art 2010. With his wife, Jane Schloss Phelan, he lives in Bloomfield, CT. Click here for sample poems. |
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BOOK STATISTICS ISBN: 978-1-943826-00-1 5.5" x 8.5" paperback, 45 pages
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