What Happens to Me

Poetry. Chuck Wachtel's WHAT HAPPENS TO ME is revelatory, not only in its lyrical clarity and knowledge, but also in its experimental and elliptical compression in poetry and short prose --Yusef Komunyakaa. This observant, dreamy, pungent collection reads like a picaresque novel whose hero witnesses the end of our worst century with a deep sense of mystery, love, and play. I love these tender, oftentimes awed reflections -- Jean Valentine. Chuck Wachtel has figured out a way of describing people and things that has never been done before...Wachtel's poetics extend from and broaden the work of Paul Blackburn and Joel Oppenheimer...His reception to the quotidian is awe-inspiring - Lewis Warsh.