Horse Show at Midnight and an Afternoon of Pocket Billiards - Poems

The poet is clerk of Goose Creek Meeting in Virginia, and, indeed the fifth in a direct line of descendants to hold that same post. This collection of 24 poems reveals the range and power of a young Southern poet whose work is characterized by a tensile strength and a coldly factual style which beneath the surface carries great passion. Some of the poems masterfully employ twists of irony; others utilize grotesque, yet real, characters and situations; others are nimble parodies. All of the poems, however, proclaim Taylor's sensitivity to the rhythms and idioms of everyday speech. All touch the unusual, the comic, the despairing, the hopeful.