Inner Cities of Gulls

"Throughout Inner Cities of Gulls, whether penetrating the natural world or the historical one, whether in love poems or in poems that explore other ''inner weather'' of the human heart, JP Dancing Bear reveals a certain kind of earned wisdom. Sometimes summoning the voices of mythical persons, sometimes raising his own powerful voice, this poet lends insight to our sometimes faulty assumptions about the way life should be lived. ''I could change light / and substance into any gift,'' claims the speaker of ''The Dark Current.'' The poems in this compelling collection are themselves such a gift."
Andrea Hollander Budy

"JP Dancing Bear writes new myths for our times through a cornucopia of characters, from Prospero as a TV weatherman to Jesuses of the street. Inner Cities of Gulls contains powerfully moving poems that are restlessly inventive and always life affirming. They celebrate both the natural world and the trance of traffic, displaying his trademark range."
Pascale Petit

JP Dancing Bear is the author of Conflicted Light (Salmon Poetry, 2008), Gacela of Narcissus City (Main Street Rag, 2006), Billy Last Crow (Turning Point, 2004) and What Language (Slipstream, 2002), winner of the 2001 Slipstream Prize. His poems have been published in New Orleans Review, National Poetry Review, Knockout, Bateau, diode, DIAGRAM, Verse Daily and many others. His work has been ten times nominated for a Pushcart Prize and once for a Forward Prize. He is currently working on translations of the works of the Nicaraguan poet Blanca Castellon and the Mexican poet Oscar Wong. He is the editor of the American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press and the host of "Out of Our Minds", a weekly poetry program on the public radio station KKUP.