Waffle House Blues

have known Carter Monroe for twenty years.During that time, we have had many, many face-to-face and long-distance conversations, and I have never failed to come away from a single one of them without having my perspective altered in some way. What is remarkable though is that he has that kind of relationship with numerous writers, musicians, and artists around the country and the globe. He is truly a great communicator, generous with both his time and resources.The poems in Waffle House Blues succeed for this same reason. Monroe takes the familiar (who hasn't experienced this iconic chain) and imbues It with his singular world vision in narratives that are both homey and sophisticated. In this outstanding volume, he proves again to be a shrewd observer of the human animal and demonstrates that one doesn't have to go far into the world to see most of it.--Tim Peeler, author of West of Mercy, We See What We Want to See, Knuckle Bear, Rough Beast, and Touching All the Bases: Poems About Baseball.