The extraordinary 88-year-old Harry Staley delivered a bravura performance on Wednesday, May 2, at the Writers Institute with a reading of his new collected poetry, Truant Pastures, from SUNY Press.
In advance praise, literature scholar Todd F. Davis said, “The portrait of the speaker in the majority of these poems is one of a man conflicted in his religious faith, in his faith in his fellow human community, in the wars that religion has persuaded his fellow humans to take part in…. Staley demonstrates an understanding that is deeply spiritual, yet does not yield to easy, forgiving answers.”