The Man at the Door: New & Collected Poems

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Ryk McIntyre has been taking poetry fans through dark, witty, often hysterical doors for multiple decades, and now, with his new book, Ryk has opened them all and is shining his light in every corner. In, The Man at the Door: New & Collected Poems, Ryk McIntyre looks back on lost love, and what it’s like to look for love in your 50’s. His poems reveal the uncertainty of living with disabilities, talk honestly about sobriety, and he personifies creatures of the night. Ryk frightens his daughter’s first date, says no to whatever it is this guy is selling, and thanks God none of it has killed him yet. He is learning to move forward while still holding his place. In these poems Ryk is a self-reflective Sage staring down life’s next turns, his body is failing him, but he has lived hard enough to stay up-right.

From the Introduction by Jesse Parent:
“This book is real and hasn’t bothered to fix its teeth. Ryk takes the reader on a winding stage, flips you off, and maybe make you feel grateful for the boot to the head he gave you during the last set. Ryk McIntyre is punk rock… with a cane. And you better be ready to duck.”

Reviews:
"In The Man at the Door, Ryk McIntyre chronicles a hard-won life. “You can carry only so much loss,” he writes, “what your hands remember, fades.” From grief to chronic illness to the reverie of “three-chord animal sweat,” McIntyre offers wisdom, cynicism, and, yes, gratitude. He thanks the bus that did not hop a curb and the former lovers who were not serial killers in playful yet rigorous examination of his own mortality. A survival journey worth its words." -Jeanann Verlee, author of “Racing Hummingbirds, Said the Manic to the Muse”, and “prey”

"Taken as a whole, the poems in Ryk McIntyre’s second collection suggest the experience of looking at an exquisite tapestry, worn and frayed, that nonetheless continues to dazzle and intrigue. Follow one thread and find a dense, intense meditation on mortality and disability ; trace another to a slyly erotic take on the murky world of online dating ; tug on another to a surreal, nearly dreamlike meditation on reality, danger, and risk . The overall voice is that of a man who has experienced much, struggled with much, and still maintains hope in love, connection, and redemption. An important collection from an important voice." –Tony Brown, Poet and guitarist of The Duende Project

"Ryk McIntyre is a poet you don’t realize is holding your attention perfectly, until you’ve finished an entire book and flipped through the last pages, wanting more and feeling fulfilled, simultaneously. An Important voice you can hold in your teeth, and that bites back, Ryk will speak to you in your own words." - Wil Gibson, author of “Quitting Smoking, falling in and out of love, and other thoughts about death”