Solonche has plenty to teach us about poetic craft, not to mention the facets of suffering and longing that inspired these poems in the first place. But these are not overwrought diatribes on the human condition. Instead, Solonche approaches us with the ease and dark humor of a Zen master wandering down from the mountain to chat for a while. Michael Meyerhofer, author of What To Do If You're Buried Alive and Poetry Editor of Atticus Review Solonche proves his claim, “I have a thousand arrows in the quiver of my silence.” Crafting poems straight and slant, he zeroes in on everyday events—a friend’s offhand remark, a shadow against a window, planting an iris, driving through a rainstorm—in poems which can veer suddenly, often with irony and humor, into the great questions. He loves to upend expectations, pose koan-like questions, make us laugh out loud, go “against the grain…./ For the pure spite of it.” But the great beauty of the world shines here, too—its flowers, trees, birds, insects, seasons, weather. The Black Birch even features “the only poems you will need about” a variety of topics, as when he compares tombstones to “…pieces / of The Game / put back in the box / when the game is done.” A volume quirky and delightful, with a sting and a heart. Mary Makofske, author of World Enough, and Time In The Black Birch, J.R. Solonche shows himself to be a man of many guises: part zen master with his pocket full of koans, and part trickster, if the trickster could be part comedian and part stenographer, and if the stenographer could be part wild animal and part venerable scribe, and if that scribe could be the kind who improves the most sacred text by doodling in the margins. The wordplay and the humor and the direct observations allow the lucky reader to see the world again, as both child and sage, though Solonche might argue that there's no difference. Stephen Cramer, winner of the National Poetry Series for Shiva's Drum and the Louise Bogan Award for Bone Music J.R.Solonche is the author of Beautiful Day (Deerbrook Editions), Won't Be Long (Deerbrook Editions),   Heart's Content (Five Oaks Press), Invisible (nominated for the PulitzerPrize by Five Oaks Press), The BlackBirch (Kelsay Books), I, EmilyDickinson & Other Found Poems (Deerbrook Editions), In Short Order (Kelsay Books), Tomorrow, Today & Yesterday (Deerbrook Editions),   True Enough  (Dos Madres Press), In a Public Place (Dos Madres Press), If You Should See Me Walking on the Road (Kelsay Books), The Time of Your Life (forthcoming April2020 from Adelaide Books), The PorchPoems (forthcoming 2020 from Deerbrook Editions), and coauthor of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). He lives in the Hudson Valley.