TALKING TO STANLEY ON THE TELEPHONE 

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Talking to Stanley on the Telephone 
Smith/Doorstop 2021

The Stanley in ques­tion is Stanley Moss (1925–2024), the remark­able and mis­chievous American poet, pub­lisher and art dealer, friend and cor­res­pondent of Michael Schmidt for decades. The stories this col­lec­tion tells add up to a viva­cious cel­eb­ra­tion of life-spans and the dark­ening comedy of growing old. Unapologetic, lustful, resigned, almost polit­ic­ally incor­rect: these poems recount the desires, frus­tra­tions and waning fac­ulties of old age with unex­pected hil­arity, and infer what happens when the end is over.

‘These are also poems of self-questioning, with Schmidt talking not just to Stanley Moss on the phone at night but enga­ging with the past (himself as a boy) while addressing himself in the present (still a boy at heart). They are wry, playful mono­logues puzz­ling over what can only be unpacked, or more often left equi­vocal, in the poem itself. Reading this book, we find ourselves in the stim­u­lating company of a poet-conversationalist par excel­lence, listening to what might feel addressed to us while eaves­drop­ping on what is clearly not.’
– Neil Astley, PN Review