In Delp’s capable hands, his characters drift or float in the confluence between myth and dream, where waters
soothe and connect. These connections take place close to home, providing even more compelling reasons to wade
in.
~Glen Young
John Berryman and Patti Smith had a son, and his name was Mike Delp’s poems. This book is a mysterious amplifier with ‘11’ on the dial. Delp’s Mad Angler poems want to make you sane; and the Deadman of these poems wants you to live. Read these two sections in a rush, one after another, as I did, and you make your own river in the air around the living room, or campfire. They become a prayer. You can see a god waking very suddenly in the corner, wide-eyed, just the whites of the eyes, having been asleep for years— looking around, looking around.
~Doug Stanton
This is a humorous, provocative collection of persona writing and conversational poetry that may appeal to those who enjoy the surreal.
~Aaron Robertson
Expect fun, passionate, provocative prose by one of Northern Michigan’s most beloved writers. Perfect cottage porch read.
~Jeff Smith
The layout of this book, with its multiple access points, is fascinating. [. . .] The book’s recursive form is meant to mimic that transitional delta space where rivers pour into larger bodies. This formal invention makes Delp’s collection completely unique, and kudos to the editors at Wayne State University Press for allowing him such an unconventional layout.
~John Freeman
In the first of David's Psalms, the righteous man is likened to 'a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.' Michael Delp is such a man, and these poems are the fruits of his lifelong, steadfast, deeply rooted devotion to the holy waters that nourish his wild heart: 'O taste and see
~Nick Bozanic, Author of Lost River Fugue
The poems in Mike Delp's stunning new collection must have emerged from that crack in the world between sleeping and waking. They're as raw and bloody as newborn myths, and they're howling to be heard. Listen to them. Drink them. Eat them. Then throw away your old life and start over. Delp says, 'Here, read this, it will kill you.' It will, it did.
~Jerry Dennis, Author of a Daybreak Handbook and the Windward Shore
Michael Delp is our state's poetic Intimidator/Enchanter. He intimidates with unexpected images, 'Upon the ridge, coyotes lick the backs of shadows.' And enchants with, 'Find the truth written on the skins of brook trout.' Deadman meets Mad Angler: Only Delp, only Delp. More, anon.
~Joseph Heywood, Author of the Snowfly
As the hip kids would say, Deadman kills it. One of the most memorable personas in contemporary Michigan literature (sorry to use the 'L' word, Deadman), Delp's trickster is at once feral and dumber than we are smart, challenging our antiquated views of how art should behave. One must harken back to the little-known but seminal Chilean poet Nicanor Parra to find a writer so deft at creating 'anti-poems' that both move the reader and revivify the poetic. Immerse yourself, reader, in this river's dark bed, then surface gasping—and more alive.
~Chris Dombrowski, Author of Earth Again (Wayne State University Press, 2013)
