It is rare to find contemporary American poetry that speaks to readers with engaging directness, free of pretense or posturing. That is exactly the kind of poetry that Blas Falconer writes. In his first collection, Falconer presents 46 poems that are emotionally forthright and linguistically evocative but written without affectation or subterfuge. Although Falconer is formally trained and is aware of the structures and potential of both free verse and traditional poetic forms, he crafts exquisite, heartfelt poems that surprise us with their simple intensity. Whether writing about the mysteries of childhood or the pleasures of cruising for gay sex in a metropolitan airport, he surprises us with the delicacy of his touch, never obvious or heavy-handed. As a gay man who embraces his Puerto Rican heritage, Falconer stands at an edge of American society, and there is the tension of borders in his work: borders between peoples and nations as well as the less visible, more porous and deceptive borders between family members and lovers. There is not one point of view in these poems but many. It is the quality of their observational power that binds them together. Whether the setting is the hospital room of his dying grandfather or his own backyard teeming with garrulous tree frogs, Falconer transports us to the scene. It is easy for us to imagine what he sees. And we care, deeply, just as he does.

A Question of Gravity and Light (Camino del Sol)

Literature & Fiction

Falconer, Blas

Poetry

University of Arizona Press

Centered on the adoption of a gay couple’s first child, The Foundling Wheel employs apt imagery to create an emotional mosaic that explores the complicated bond between father and son. Beginning in a place where the desire to have a child has not yet been realized, this book is a journey, and while the poems certainly rejoice in fatherhood, they also grapple with the fears that accompany it.

The Foundling Wheel (Stahlecker Selections)

United States

Four Way Books

Poetry. Gay and Lesbian Studies. These seventeen poems bespeak a lifetime of growth and pain. Blas Falconer writes of family and friends, of travel and home. But mostly he writes, from deep within his heart, of living as a gay man in a hetero world. For him, the "perfect hour" is a time when nothing should be changed, not even the length of that hour. For him, whether he's writing about his mother, his grandmother, or a rather unusual child, the issue is always, "Love them, love them."

The Perfect Hour

Aequitas Books

<p>Engaging the past and present, these poems attempt to reconcile loss and longing while also seeking to understand our own impermanence. Written in a plain-spoken voice, they are meditative, elegiac and tender.</p>

Forgive the Body This Failure

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Books by Falconer, Blas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Falconer, Blas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Question of Gravity and Light (Camino del Sol)

The Foundling Wheel (Stahlecker Selections)

The Perfect Hour

Forgive the Body This Failure