Black Moss Press

John Tyndall's poems have appeared in the anthologies That Sign of Perfection, Losers First, I Want to Be the Poet of Your Kneecaps, Henry's Creature, and Following the Plough. Free Rein is his first book for Black Moss Press.

Free Rein

John Tyndall writes about raising a son (and how the child raises the man), elegies to a best friend gone too soon, and lyrics to the only woman he has ever loved. The inspirations for his poems range from the darkness of dreams to the wonders of day. Tyndall imagines what happens when you invite Death to dinner and reveals where you can find the bones of a tornado. Jaguars play with children and the moon takes a dip in the St. Claire River.

Praised by the University of Toronto Quarterly for his "strange iridescent language," Tyndall gives his poetry free rein in a world of mystery and joy.

A previous book, Howlcat Fugues, was chosen by the Library Journal as one of the ten best small-press poetry books of 1976, citing it as "a surrealistic pattern of poetry and art."

84 pages $17.95

ISBN 0-88753-356-6 Poetry

Rolled Over
from Skin Tests

I was driving my baby
boy to sleep
his 4AM eyes dazed
open at city lights
all the way north
on Richmond Street

glazed to the sound
of Simon and his son
going alone to Graceland

then we were rolling
through final darkness
darkness finally
when over-tired eyelids
fell down in #4 country

and the odometer rolled
over counting from
999999
to
000000
to
000001

and Bill Withers began
he sang

I know I know
I know I know
I know I know
ain't no sunshine
when she's gone

so we turned
back to you
Mama