Monks Love the Curveball

Adam Jameson was born and raised in Pittsburg Kansas. He is a 1995 graduate of Pittsburg State University with a B.A. in History. He has a varied job history but has spent the last 11 years with Evergy as meter reader and now an Estimator. His work has appeared in Harp The Little Balkans Review To the Stars Through Difficulty and Ghost Sign which was named a Kansas Notable Book. He was recently featured on Garrison Keillors The Writers Almanac. His poetry collection #9 to Sallisaw was published by The Little Balkans Press. Hes also spent the last 30 years performing with White Buffalo Poetry and Blues. He lives in rural Pittsburg with his wife Mer son Cole and a bossy Shi Tzu named Scooter.Jamesons poems make the ordinary sacred. Monks Love the Curveball celebrates his passionate love of family baseball work and hunting. Lyrical and objective the poems are snapshots of the moment while celebrating the passage of time. I feel more human more alive after reading these poems because as a father and former baseball player his vision is universal a vision I can feel in my bones.J.T. Knoll Ghost SignIn Adam Jamesons new work Monks Love the Curve Ball this Kansas-seer native sonexplores the rhythmic and sometimes eccentric serenity of everyday life in his part of the world. We welcome in his life of baseball games both past and present earth tilling splitting wood: Splitting wood by hand tends to keep the people away useful workadays writing duck hunting and good dogs. To say baseball is just a metaphor for things like ritual community and family is almost a disservice. Hes occupying the terrain somewhere between Wendell Berrys farmer/poet and Jack Spicers baseball afficionado/poet who once wrote: The pitcher in his sudden humanness looks toward the dugout in either agony or triumph. Adams triumph is his language: plain-spoken passionate and revealing. -John Macker Author of The Blues Drink Your Dreams Away and Atlas of Wolves.Jameson knows the grit of dirt the smell of sweat--not only on the baseball field but also through a long hot day an endless cold night off-field. Lifes simple subtle curveballs are explored in these poems: how to raise kids cut wheat order burgers or drinks. The language is plain-style and the statements direct but there is also much magic here like how a homer hit might rip through night accompanied by moths swarming a stadium light. Theres that kind of simple downhome beauty here--masculine but not macho strength without the shove. --Kevin Rabas Everyone Just Wants to Drum Poet Laureate of Kansas 2017-2019