Available in Print Now!
C&R Press Winter Soup Bowl 2020 Chapbook Selection
Rick Hilles’s My Roberto Clemente begins with an invigorating homage to a childhood baseball idol and legend and ends with an appreciation to an anonymous man (possibly a retired circus clown or sideshow freak) feeding pigeons in Washington Square Park who sits as “still as any public statuary…as if any one of/our blue lives depend upon it.” And how much our lives depend on the many discovered mercies—small and large—that this poet brings to our fortunate and ultimately grateful attention in My Roberto Clemente.
Rick Hilles’s My Roberto Clemente is a collection that turns to the recuperative powers of poetry in the midst of the various dark forces bearing down on us to draw more strength and resilience—even delight!
Praise for Previous Work
For Brother Salvage:
“Rick Hilles should be commended for taking on the large and risky task of writing poems on various cultures and their political histories in this book. From the Holocaust to ancient Egyptian mysteries to the work of Paul Eluard, Hilles approaches complex dimensions of history in highly crafted and brilliant poems. He is successful because he gives himself the lyrical room and forms to succeed. Each poem is different, is structured in challenging ways, and resonates with the skill and talent of a young poet coming into his own and bringing the world with him.
—Ray Gonzalez, Bloomsbury Review
It is said that the world must ‘remember’ or ‘never forget.’ How can that effectively prevent anti-Semitism or any other act of mass genocide? When humanity is mentally and emotionally touched to the core with realistic accounts, then perhaps [it] will be moved to do more than just observe and remark about an experience far beyond [its] knowledge. Brother Salvage does just that. …This reviewer was riveted by the poignancy of these Holocaust poems.” —Deborah Schoeneman, Jewish Book World
“Shows the power of the narrative in poetry to remind us, in concise and elegant language, of our shared humanity. . . . Between Hilles’ mastery of Keats’ ‘negative capability’ and his command of language both elegant yet clear and clean, these poems and their narrators move before the reader’s eyes, engage and entice us to listen to stories that, no matter how large or small, deserve to be heard and treasured.”
—Ohioana Quarterly
For A Map of the Lost World:
“Always a poet of authentic promise, with A Map of the Lost World Rick Hilles emerges into an importance that may rival such poets as Henri Cole and Rosanna Warren. …I emerge from this book somber yet fortified because like Kafka it reminds us of a kind of indestructibility of the human spirit.”
—Harold Bloom
“Complex and symphonic, with sections and movements that unfold slowly and inform each other, the poems in Rick Hilles’ lovely second collection examine the nature of memory and the trials of coming to grips with the past. Many of the poems are narrative-based—story-like, plotted and wonderfully compelling . . . Whether sifting through his own memories or channeling the voices of the past, Hilles composes poems that, ultimately, honor history and the personal stories that lie behind it.” —BookPage