NAP Authors
was born in Utica, New York and grew up in the Welsh community there. A graduate of St. Lawrence University, Lloyd received his MA in Creative Writing and his Ph.D. in literature from Brown University and now directs the Creative Writing Program at Le Moyne College. His articles, interviews, poems, and stories have appeared in magazines in the US, Canada, and Europe, including Crab Orchard Review , Denver Quarterly, DoubleTake , Planet , Poetry Wales , and TriQuarterly . The Urgency of Identity: Contemporary English-language Poetry from Wales , edited by Mr. Lloyd, was published in 1994 by TriQuarterly Books / Northwestern University Press, and his book of interviews with Welsh writers and editors, Writing on the Edge , appeared in 1997 . His poetry collection The Everyday Apocalypse , published by Three Conditions Press, won the 2002 Maryland State Poetry & Literary Society's chapbook contest and in 2000 Mr. Lloyd was the co-winner of the Poetry Society of America's Robert H. Winner Memorial Award. His book of poems mythologizing Frank Sinatra, The Gospel According to Frank , was published by New American in 2002.
Sample Work
Because he was so huge
they pulled him out with forceps
long as pool cues, half-killing
the almost-forgotten mother.
But afterwards, as he lay on the table
by the bloodied tools, he couldn't open his eyes,
couldn't leave his dream
of endless and splendid isolation,
always ninety eight point six,
always suspended, always playtime.
It took a waterfall to wake him,
his first note cracking every
window and mirror in Hoboken.
And why not?
Why should he wish to leave
the amniotic slumber for a childhood
of boxing gyms, scrap-heaps, doughboys,
and soon-to-leap stock brokers
so much unlike himself?
Every legend needs a legend
from which the hero rises like a flame
from a greasy stove, like a mushroom
from manure, like a song
from the lips of a kid on a street corner
whose partner strums a ukulele.
On the first day he created radio.
On the second day, My Way .
On the third day, From Here to Eternity .
On the fourth, Dino, Sammy, Peter,
with personalities and scripts.
And on the fifth day, he created Eve
from the rib of a nameless man
who suffered horribly
and died soon after. She was distant,
faithless, and without hope.
And on the sixth day he saw that it was good.
And he rested on the seventh day with Eve,
a cigarette, and a bottle of Jack Daniels
in a bed as big as the sky –
and still his feet hung a good ways
over the edge.
This right here, he shouted,
toasting himself and his appetites
as Eve dreamed of Adam.
This here is the life.
There's power, Frank had to admit
if only to himself,
and then there's power. Which is what
Jack Kennedy taught him during their minutes
of imagined intimacy, his finger always poised
a half inch above a heavily-guarded button
no matter where his eyes might dart.
Press it, and men drown in the Bay of Pigs.
Press again, a woman falls to the pavement in Saigon.
Again, and a man gasps
in Baghdad. One last time, and, and …
Frank never found such a button,
despite years of searching,
though he knew its shape and color,
though he called himself a friend
to some of the men who owned
the most important fingers.
David Lloyd was born in Utica, New York and grew up in the Welsh community there. A graduate of St. Lawrence University, Lloyd received his MA in Creative Writing and his Ph.D. in literature from Brown University and now directs the Creative Writing Program at Le Moyne College. His articles, interviews, poems, and stories have appeared in magazines in the US, Canada, and Europe, including Crab Orchard Review , Denver Quarterly, DoubleTake , Planet , Poetry Wales , and TriQuarterly . The Urgency of Identity: Contemporary English-language Poetry from Wales , edited by Mr. Lloyd, was published in 1994 by TriQuarterly Books / Northwestern University Press, and his book of interviews with Welsh writers and editors, Writing on the Edge , appeared in 1997 . His poetry collection The Everyday Apocalypse , published by Three Conditions Press, won the 2002 Maryland State Poetry & Literary Society's chapbook contest and in 2000 Mr. Lloyd was the co-winner of the Poetry Society of America's Robert H. Winner Memorial Award. His book of poems mythologizing Frank Sinatra, The Gospel According to Frank , was published by New American in 2002.