Three poetic journeys, the first into the members of a semi-pro Mexican baseball team, the second intoa mariage beginning and ending, the third into an 1880s Nevada mining camp.
The poetic sections of A Perfect Throw web three separate confrontations with love, aspiration and destiny into a vivid examination of human struggles, achievements and compromise. For the members of a Mexican baseball team the game they play is the fiber that unifies their disparate and often conflictive personalities. The narrator of a marriage that has ended faces a new life carrying the responsibilities of the old and the feelings of love, conflict and alienation that they engender. And a pioneer mother in a nineteenth century Nevada mining camp re-achieves the faith she lost after her husband’s death through a new and unconventional relationship. Their emotions, and those that they invoke, are the heart and soul of A Perfect Throw.
Excerpt
Welsh Camp, 1863/1990
The word to freighters was: "Turn south
just beyond the saddle, follow the dry
gulch towards the bare peak. Where the ground
buckles, take the low fork left. Keep
climbing past the avalanche's gash. Beyond
the last pine trees you'll find Welsh Camp."
Approaching through a glimmering haze--that violet
loaming typical of Nevada sunsets--I paused
to stare along the barren slope, imagining
that I was her, seeing what she must have seen
that first time she pushed her brown hair
off her forehead and gasped, "Oh God, no! Please!"
Scrub brush, a rocky shelf jutting past shrunken chaparral,
a lone vulture drifting through the rising heat. I braced
myself against a scream--hers, perhaps, or that
pf all those immigrants ripped from cozy homes
and driven here by greed or duty or dreams.
At the ledge where the town had pressed two dozen
wooden buildings against a sheer rock face
I saw her brown dress shiver into being.
Hand raised to shield her eyes she called wordlessly.
for Wales, I think, thatch over brick, a muddy stream,
cows tinkling through the gorse. Then she was gone.
The haze absorbed the sun's last violet gleaming;
I felt night sink into the mountain
as I pitched my camp. There were no buildings left,
only the main mine shaft. And an old piece
of tent with the warning in red:
DANGER. MEN DIED IN HERE.
Professional Reviews
Review
This book of poetry is divided into three sections- They Still Play Baseball The Old Way, In Gratitude for Shared Generations and Wife of the Jew.
They Still Play Baseball is about a Mexican baseball team. I really enjoyed the way the poems were set out. There's no rhyme to the poems, but there is a rhythm. The first half is prose, and about their character as a baseball player. The second half is about their life, from early childhood to adulthood.
In Gratitude was probably my least favourite of the three, but it's by no means bad. I suppose the tender topic of families breaking up just hits me the wrong way. But Stout wrote this set of poetry, about a husband and wife's life unraveling, starting with the death of the wife's mother, in an very, in-the-moment-and-yet-still-looking-back way.
Finally, Wife of the Jew was my favourite set of poetry in this book. Telling the story of a widow in a Nevada mining town, and her love for the town Jew, each poem brings them closer together.
Kelsey's Review
I don't know much about poetry beyond what I like and what I don't like so I fear my review may not be very informative but I'll do my best.
'A Perfect Throw' is a book of poetry broken into three sections that have a central theme - Baseball, Marriage/family life, 1880s mining town.
While I didn't always relate to the central theme (I know very little about baseball) I was still able to enjoy the rhythm and flow of the writing. In fact, many of the poems where written in a similar style used by Australian bush poets - conversational, sometimes laconic, storytelling - which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I particularly enjoyed the section centred around marriage/family life. I found the poems possessed a certain level of authenticity. They felt 'real', genuine, which made it easy to relate to them.
As an amateur poetry fan, I would recommend this book.
A Perfect Throw
As someone who tries to read different book of poetry I found this one surprisingly easy to follow/understand. While the first action was baseball themed, and I know nothing of baseball I still found it readable and enjoyable. I would reccomend this to people who like poetry.
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This book is a limited edition, and copies are hand numbered. It will NOT be available through Amazon or other distributors. You must purchase it directly from the author or from this site. It is hard-back (not the spiral bind seen
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