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MICHAEL
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MICHAEL
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HALFWAY
DECENT SINNERS BY MICHAEL CLEARY
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HOMETOWN,
USA BY MICHAEL CLEARY
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MICHAEL
CLEARY BIOGRAPHY
Born
in 1945, I grew up in a family of 5 children in Glens Falls,
NY, in the Adirondacks, a city profiled in LOOK Magazine’s
1944 series, “Hometown, USA” which depicted a
“typical” hometown of returning WW II GI’s.
First of my family to attend college, I taught high school
English before earning my doctorate in Tennessee and joining
the English faculty at Broward Community College, Ft. Lauderdale,
FL, the nation’s fifth largest community college. I’ve
been awarded an Endowed Teaching Chair for classroom excellence,
teaching students from remedial to honors level while specializing
in American Literature, Creative Writing, and Film.
I
began to publish with essays on 20th C. writers such as Edward
Albee, Thomas Berger, Harold Pinter, and Flannery O’Connor.
When I tried my hand at poetry some 20 years ago, my third
poem was accepted by The Texas Review—a pure case of
dumb luck. Since then, my work has appeared widely in journals
as well as 3 college anthologies. I’m a two-time recipient
of a $5,000 Florida Arts Grant in Poetry (1986 and 1999) and
a Featured Lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities
(on the classic American Western, Shane). As winner of the
Paumanok Poetry Award, in November 2006 I’ll be visiting
writer at Farmingdale State University of New York, adding
my who-the-hell-is-he? name to a prestigious list that includes
Galway Kinnell, Joyce Carol Oates, Allen Ginsberg, W.S. Merwin.
My
book, Hometown, USA, was published as 1992 winner of The American
Book Series Award by San Diego Poets Press. My second collection,
Halfway Decent Sinners, appeared in 2006 from CustomWords.
I
live in Fort Lauderdale with my wife, Carol, who shares my
passion for demolition salvage sales as we renovate our 1950s
cottage near the beach.
Michael
Cleary’s welcome second book continues his eloquent
exploration of our flawed human condition. Vividly colored
by his Catholic upbringing, these poems look with both passion
and compassion at childhood, family, marriage, divorce, work
and play. They form a hymn of praise for the flowers of life
and love, despite (or perhaps because of) the serpent lurking
in every garden.
—Peter
Meinke
Halfway
Decent Sinners. The title says it all—these deeply felt
poems focus on the contradictory mixture of pleasure and guilt
that make us human. Cleary acknowledges and celebrates our
humanity in all its forms—the vulnerability of both
the flesh and the spirit. He’s a natural storyteller
with a twinkle in his eye, full of good humor and good will.
The cast of characters that inhabit these poems are lively
and memorable. Their complex human desires and frailties constantly
butt up against the rigid structures of organized religion.
While this rich, varied collection contains everything from
the sacred to the profane, Cleary, like our best poets, has
a definite fondness for the sacredly profane.
—Jim
Daniels
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Hometown,
USA
In
1944 LOOK Magazine published a series of articles about Glens
Falls, New York. There they claimed to find the heart of America.
Michael Cleary, a native of that town, finds a different America
entirely, a more personal one, gritty and believable. And
he sets down what he finds in poetry that is heartfelt, plainspoken,
evocative, and engaging. Hometown, USA, is a wonderful book.
—Fred
Chappell
These poems remind us with a start how quickly it all
goes by: the slick surface of the American Dream turning slowly
to the salt echo of an old and necessary melody. Cleary knows
what all true elegiac poets know: that the one thing necessary
in this life seems to be to stop and rest in the lingering
afternoon of the mystery to light a candle for a world itself
become a shadow.
—Paul
Mariani
Michael
Cleary’s first book looks back on his family and country
with a gentle but passionate eye: gentle because these people
and places are recreated lovingly: passionate because they
are shown truthfully, and in depth. Hometown, USA is a moving
and lyrical debut of a fine poet.
—Peter
Meinke
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Michael
Cleary's Publisher:
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PO Box 541106
Cincinnati OH 45254-1106
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