Blue If Only I Could Tell You is the thirteenth collection of poetry by Richard Tillinghast. Long awaited, the book is his first since
Wayfaring Stranger came out in 2012. Melodious, lyrical, these poems of place and displacement are deeply personal at times as they look back over a long and eventful life. Tillinghast also focuses on troubled and troubling aspects of the American story: the Indian Wars of the 19th century and the history of race relations in his native South, from slavery to the country’s current racial reckoning. It is rare to see a poet with such gifts for musicality, vivid imagery and finely honed diction address himself so pointedly to issues of social and political import.
- “The best poet of the younger generation, and deserving of more recognition than most of the poets in the older generation: that is, mine and the one beyond it.” — James Dickey
Tillinghast’s poems continues to stay curious and engaged, involving himself with the twists and turns of American history and how they manifest themselves in the social issues of today.
- Entering his ninth decade, Tillinghast addresses his own sense of mortality and personal vulnerability.
He is at heart a lyrical poet, but his inherent impulse to celebrate life is troubled by the changing world he finds himself living in.
