Suddenly, It’s Evening: Selected Poems

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Alan Dugan described Skoyles’s poems as “clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time.” That description holds true for this selection of poems from his previous four books: A Little Faith; Permanent Change; Definition of the Soul, and The Situation. The title, taken from the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo, alludes to the temporal quality of existence, how one moves from sunlight to twilight in the course of a lifetime. And how those evening hours arrive suddenly, as if in no time at all. Praise for John Skoyles: "Economy, intuitively just-so pacing, extra-dry humor, humility, the sense that life doesn't get the rewards it merits, even as it doesn't deserve the punishments it suffers. Best of all for a poet, he's blessed with a perfect ear." —David Rigsbee "Skoyles projects a sharp sense of place and time in an original voice." —The Associated Press "His lyric, compassionate and observant poems simultaneously project a dignity and a modesty which is not quite like any other contemporary poet." —Puerto del Sol "Clear-eyed but passionate, sarcastic but grave, all at the same time." —Alan Dugan