The Unemployed Man Who Became a Tree

“Kevin Pilkington seems at home wherever he happens to find himself–New York, Greece, Key West. In this rich collection of tender poems, he celebrates the small consolations of daily life that offer spiritual relief in the face of disappointment and loss. Pilkington’s wry, playful humor serves as both weapon and tool. In a world bereft of miracles, he finds instead the sustaining spirit of what might pass for magic. These poems are deceptively modest and casual, offering up their playful jazzy riffs on daily life. There are no easy epiphanies here-just one poet working as hard as he can to get through daily life with dignity and grace.”

-Jim Daniels

The world is vivid and alive in Kevin Pilkington’s new collection of poems, and he catches it in quick transformations, so that we, too, see a distant schooner sail into a bottle, or feel the streets of New York suddenly become as rhythmic as music. By turns bright and dark, close-held and wide-sweeping, these poems beckon for us to scramble out on to the fire escape and stand with the writer watching the world.”

-Rachel Cohen

It’s thrilling to watch a poet create a world-fascinating when it turns out to be the one we live in. Kevin Pilkington’s spare, subversive voice can conjure love from a donut, despair from Bloomingdale’s. In ‘The Cat That Could Fly’ a strange transcendence, made of lies, travels way beyond the self. Reading this beautiful and quietly visceral book, it’s easy to forget each of us lives only once and dies alone.”

-Dennis Nurkse