Blog | Jesse Glass Featured Poet At Poetryvlog.com—take a look! |
Go to www.poetryvlog.com. The bulk of this video is given over to a long poem about the late, great Leo Connellan c. 1976 and the impact this man had on the dons and their darlings at a handful of small Maryland colleges–particularly Loyola in Baltimore. I’d personally never seen a man pack the liquor away like the pre-detox Leo did during his time with us and still manage to hold forth. What I didn’t know was that this was Leo’s last battle with the bottle and that his return to normal life would result in the trilogy The Clear Blue Lobster Country published by Harcourt-Brace and nominated for the Pulitzer.
As you can probably tell, I am of 27 minds about Leo. I still admire the power of his poetry, and think “Crossing America” is a great poem. I pull out a few of his letters on occasion and read his advice about writing poetry. Leo proved himself to be a loyal friend right up to the time of his death and still shows up in my dreams. Rest in peace, buddy.
