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The kinetic energy of John Rybicki's poems is his unmistakable signature. His poem "Traveling at High Speeds" opens with the lines, "Some night my body takes the shape of this city." That urban shape is the shape of John Rybicki's poetry as well. The city in question is, of course, Detroit, but whether Detroit itself is the subject--as it is in many of his poems--or not, the cadence of its streets informs the slashing attack of Rybicki's vivid language.
About the author
Poet JOHN RYBICKI was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He is the author of the poetry collections Traveling at High Speeds (1996) and We Bed Down Into Water: Poems (2008). His third collection, When All the World Is Old (2012), was written in response to the long illness and death of his wife, the poet Julie Moulds. His poems have been published in The Best American Poetry 2008, Alaska Quarterly Review, Field, Paris Review, and Poetry. Rybicki has been a writer-in-residence at Alma College in Alma, Michigan. He teaches poetry to young writers through the InsideOut Literary Arts Project and Wings of Hope Hospice. He lives in Michigan with his son.
Summary
The kinetic energy of John Rybicki’s poems is his unmistakable signature. His poem “Traveling at High Speeds” opens with the lines, “Some night my body takes the shape of this city.” That urban shape is the shape of John Rybicki’s poetry as well.
