This book contains selections of poetry and prose from the work of an aging Midwestern man--looking back at people, events, sexual experiences, cultures, and the church that has formed him.
The content draws on his childhood, family, World War I and II, and summers in Spain. The Villa in the Algarve, Portugal, teaching in Turkey, two gay poets, and his revisioning of the myths, history, rituals, and the incarnation of his Catholic faith as he lives and approaches his death. He embraces the gift of life and the wonder of consciousness.
Written with vivid imagery and unusual events in free verse, this will give you a fresh vision, sometimes startling, always disclosing the intimacy and consciousness of personal life.
Lawrence W. Manglitz was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, November 24, 1938. When he was a small boy, his parents moved to Bridgeman, then to Holland, Michigan. Despite the conservative nature of that community and his family church, his childhood was a time of great imagination and wanderings on his bike and adventures in Dunn's woods. In his youth, his life became more complex as he became aware of his homosexuality. He didn't publically come out until he was twenty-eight.
In 1961, he graduated from Godben College. Later, he earned an MA from the University of Michigan and a PhD from Michigan State University. In 1961, he began teaching at Talas American School, near Kayseri and later at Tarsus College in Southern Turkey. Between 1961 and 1965, he traveled in the Middle East and in Southern Europe, spending his summers in Ibiza, Spain. Later, after returning to America, he visited Turkey, Spain, England, and the Czech Republic many times.
After returning to America in 1965, he taught at South High School; in 1968, he taught at the community college until his retirement in 2002. During much of the time after his return, he was active in the Episcopal church. Presently, he lived in Michigan with his three cats: James, Cecilia, and Zachariah.
He has published poetry in Matrix and The James White Review.
