You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hello, and welcome to Bookworm.

This is Michael Silverblot,

and today my guest is Michael Lally,

poet, author of most recently Can't Be Wrong.

His book from 1978, Catch My Breath,

was recently republished by Salt Lake Press.

He's the author as well of Attitude, Hollywood Magic,

going back and reverse books of poetry all the way to 1970.

Now, I want this show to be suffused by a certain emotion,

and I'll let it emerge as we go along. But I've noticed

that a certain kind of sensibility, say the Sinatra thing, is punctuated by songs like My Way or songs that summarize the singer's

hard knocks. And I noticed that in your work as well, there's a kind of synoptic style of poem that is there to give a history of the rough and

tumble. It's a kind of thing that I identify with a certain kind of saloon singing, a certain kind of style, and I wondered if you could talk about it.

That's interesting. Sinatraito comes from nearby.

Yeah, I know.

Hoboken.

So he grew up from just a few towns over.

And when I was growing up, he was obviously some sort of symbol of, you know, you could make it in Jersey, you know, and still be true to your roots and all that stuff because he seemed to be.

...