Fatherhood Is a Verb

<p>In his long-awaited second book of poems Quintin Prout re-invents in the spirit of our truest poets the common language of English speakers to meet his needs in expressing his experience. In fact he goes as far as to re-assign words their parts of speech as his experience requires. In his hands the noun fatherhood becomes a verb. As is the case with so much in this world that is assigned (race sex and so on) the language on the tip of our tongue has to tell the truth that lies in the heart; thus fatherhood is not a thing but a verb active and even transformative. Such a reassignment affirms our freedom to be ourselves as poetry at its best always does within the limits of our common language. As father and daughter interact in poem after poem this witty heartfelt instructive book shows us fatherhood in action and the lucky reader who happens on it will be grateful for its exemplary original voice.</p><p><br></p>