All I Want is a Walk-On Part

The writing of poetry is most often a calling of youth -- passionate, distracted, purblind -- rather than that of age, with its clarity, credible regret, and wisdom. What we may need more of is a senior poetry, a poetry of genuine felt experience that is for everybody, not just 'Seniors.' Lamonte Palmer's work fits this description eloquently.In "All I Want Is a Walk-On Part, " Palmer, in his seventies, faces full-on the big questions -- of Love, of the difficulty and rewards of relationships with others, of work -- and seeks the answers and the redemption that prove available.