Dream Horse Press
P.O. Box 640746
San Jose, CA 95164-0746

or email
Dancing Bear, Publisher,
Dream Horse Press

ISBN #9-9659307-0-X
80 pages, perfect bound
Cover and additional art by Oberc
$12.95  ppd.
(Make checks payable to "Dancing Bear")

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... I consider Michael McNeilley to be the finest American male poet to come out of the Northwest in the last 25 years. He is a poet's poet, a man's poet, but also achieves great nuance and subtlety in his erotic work. He is passionate, original, and has a flow of language that is rare. I should consider him essential reading for any and every poet.

Donald Rawley, author of The Nightbird Cantata and Slow Dance on the Fault Line (Avon Books) and Sirens (Quiet Lion Press)
 

Michael McNeilley writes poetry like a whisper in your ear at a party, saving you the bother of wasting time on a boring guest, so you can focus on what really matters.

Dennis Gaughan, Editor, Poetry Cafe
 

What I like about Michael McNeilley's Situational Reality is the way the poems move from clear, direct narratives to a more mysterious, dream-like surprise. I like that mix of this world and something else, something mysterious, magical, weird. McNeilley blends the dregs and joys of ordinary days, the most ordinary things -- catfood cans, a Jack LaLane program -- with the mysteriousness of moments when "we move through the house, pull down the night / together without touching." Small moments, intense and riveting. A fascinating collection -- nothing sugar-coated or phony. McNeilley's poems feel true."

Lyn Lifshin, author of more than 100 books, including Before the Light, and Cold Comfort (Black Sparrow). and Blue Tattoo (Event Horizon Press)

 

 

  I know what you like

  I know what you like.

  I know how the gleam
  on the black eye of midnight
  pulls you in.

  I sway in the same breeze,
  dive with the same fish.
  Camp on the same rock
  waiting out the hours
  before dawn.

  On my lips
  the honey of first light,
  tongue against my teeth,
  whistling into the shadows.

  And as fresh birds
  rise to feed
  the forges of dawn
  the paths of your heart
  cross mine again,

  and I know I know 
  I know what you like.

 
© 1999
Michael McNeilley &
Dream Horse Press