The Blue Demon

There is a hell on earth and you've probably been there: a place we learn is home sometimes-dangerous, mythical and real. It is 'the world you cannot love' says Prevost and he means that as a challenge. Every poem in The Blue Demon sees the exact pitiful things that make living difficult or impossible, and every poem sings with such force that beauty comes. And hope is possible. How do you turn river water into whiskey strong enough to clear your head? This book is that ambitious and that good. - Steve Scafidi, The Cabinetmaker's Window I love Chad Prevost's The Blue Demon. I love its willingness to follow the muse, and I love the wild rides that pursuit takes us on, as it does in 'Letter to a First Love after a Cosmic Vision'-('I have seen the future, Melinda, and you are in it'). And perhaps I love best of all Prevost's sense of humor that leads us back to our own lives, enriched. - Arthur Smith, The Fortunate Era In his previous books, Chad Prevost had shown a willingness to experiment and that he had an ear for the idioms, speech patterns and vernacular of the contemporary American characters that populated those poems. He has now grown deeper and wider in his listening, the hard-won empathy for his underdogs has sharpened, and he has honed the music of these voices into his finest work, plowing forward with a sensitivity and purpose that will enlarge every interaction. The best poetry always rewards us with the road maps that show the world's hidden webbing, and heals the wounds inflicted by too much reason, unveiling the Truth in its Sunday clothes. Prevost's characters share their brushes with grace and wonder, and remind us just how fragile this life can be, and how majestic, the repeated surprises of its musical offerings like a clean dose of salts to our senses. - Keith Flynn, Colony Collapse Disorder