Letting the Old Man In

"Michael Blumenthal is one of America’s finest poets, and Letting the Old Man In is a moving capstone to a distinguished career, but far more, a testament to his continuing gift of speaking truthfully to that life that always seems to surprise, deceive, delight, or betray us, even as we are graced by moments of insight, compassion, or humbled homecoming. The humbled Old Man of this volume is still vital, observant, wise, and well worth hearing what he has to share with us."

— James Hollis, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst and author, the latest being Autumnal Days

"I fear that American poetry has become the falconer who cannot hear its more glorious birds. Michael Blumenthal is a glorious bird. As was true of Yeats, of all true masters, Blumenthal’s superior craft implies and embodies his vision. Often startlingly eloquent, Blumenthal’s lyrics sing the brutality, and ecstasy, of the quotidian. He's one of our best Boomer poets."

— Richard Katrovas

"It's so hard to describe the nearly overwhelming tenderness that can accompany aging, but Michael Blumenthal has done a stunning job of it. These elegant poems prove wrong what Mick Jagger recently said about there being nothing good about getting older."

— Naomi Shihab Nye

"Michael Blumenthal is a poet reckoning with a lot of things that are on his mind – old age, AI, Gaza, his current wife, his past loves, his pleasures, his peccadilloes – but it’s a reckoning that refuses to abandon his sense of humor and his humanity. The mix is intoxicating."

— Ross McElwee, Director of Sherman’s March and Remake