The Fingernail of Luck

Poetry. Conrad Hilberry's rich language and playful tone present life from the point of view of a variety of overlooked objects. As he examines the world through the eyes of an egg, a poker, the unaged moustache of an otherwise graying man, and a mousetrap, readers are reminded of the importance of perceptiveness. Henry Taylor notes, "The poems move with a quiet authority form the observation of a particular, and of the possibilities surrounding it, to exploration of what might happen next. The miracle is that they do this without...arbitrariness." Conrad Hilberry is one of the leading poets of the Great Lakes region. His books include Player Piano (Louisiana State University Press, 2000) , Sorting the Smoke (University of Iowa Press, 1990--Iowa Poetry Prize) ; Rust (Ohio University Press,1974) ; The Moon Seen as a Slice of Pineapple (University of Georgia Press, 1984) . Mr. Hilberry lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.