Breathing for Clouds

Christopher Reilley's latest collection, Breathing for Clouds, has an emotional and architectural grandeur built page after page, written in many shapes, moods and even styles. In "A Digital Voice," Reilley writes, "I speak in puddles/but I write in oceans." Everything in this book is big, "like an old dozing elephant," embracing not only the whole of human emotion - love of child, of woman, of abuser, sadness, rage - but crossing literary genres, too, with the gritty noir prose pieces "Tales from the Grand Café," the poignant "An Open Letter to my Daughters," and of course, "Sabbath in Paradise." Breathing for Clouds does not look away or let up - ever. In its epic scope, in its muscularity of language, Reilley states, "In my greed, I offer you all I have." Who dares offer themselves like this?
~ Jennifer Colella Martelli, Apostrophe

Christopher Reilley deftly draws the reader from sentiment to the heartbreak of human folly. The sweetness of his poems and prose for his daughters, "Open Letter..." and the wistful "Pick Me A Winner" contrast starkly with pieces that detail darker visions, like "The Grand Café" tales and poems of crumbling relationships. The yearning "Danger Days" artfully applies middle age sensibility to reflections of youthful adventures. With wit, wry turn of the rhyme, and keen instinct, Breathing for Clouds invites us to view modern life through Reilley's lens.
~ Richard Fox, Time Bomb

"...the Chuck Norris of poetry."
~ Catherine Thorpe, In a Celadine World

In Breathing for Clouds, Christopher Reilley (Poet Laureate of Dedham, Ma.) walks us on a tightrope, brings us to the edge of a tall building, and places us on the brink of life-changing decisions. His poems hit us universally as we are all on the verge, tittering above our changing situations. Do we choose to take action or to not take action and continue to sink? Check it out!
~ Timothy Gager, The Shutting Door