Poetry. The poems of Lawrence Welsh seem cut down to their driest song out of debris found along an arroyo used as a border crossing. These are minimalist sketches with long resonance. Each word shifts back and forth between an archetype and prophecy, then into the essential thing itself. You have to chew on them and put some of your own spit in the mix. This is the "southwest" as experienced by hitchhiking mystics or simply a person walking away from a civilization caught up in its own demise. Nobody escapes without a few wounds. We all have scars and they make the body more interesting. Sometimes a howl floats in the wind. Sometimes it is the roar of laughter. When you get to the spot where these poems live, you might find Charles Bukowski and Lorine Niedecker roasting a jackrabbit over a campfire while sipping cold springwater. Everyone stares at the universe looking for meteorites—on SKULL HIGHWAY you count any and every speck of dust as a blessing.

Author City: EL PASO, TX USA

Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Lawrence Welsh first hitchhiked to New Mexico and Texas in 1989. Five years later, he moved to El Paso, where he still lives. A first generation Irish-American, Welsh has published five collections of poetry, and his work has appeared in more than 175 national and regional magazines, including Puerto del Sol, The Louisiana Review, Hawaii Review, Rio Grande Review, The Texas Observer, Onthebus, The Wormwood Review, Nexus, Chiron Review, The Café Review, Poetry Motel, Pearl, and the book Das Ist Alles—Charles Bukowski Recollected. Welsh has worked as a newspaper reporter, editor, waiter, and graveyard stock clerk. A winner of the Bardsong Press Celtic Voice Writing Award in Poetry, he's an associate professor of English at El Paso Community College. He's married to Lisa McNiel, a poet and teacher, and they have two children, Megan and Patrick.

Reviews and Other Links
author site
Todd Moore @ The Outlaw Poetry Network