Strangers and Friends

He was called a rhymer the first time he stood at an open mic.

Not mockingly – that was simply who he was and what he mistakenly believed was every poet’s way. But rhymers were rare then, and they remain so today.

Gentry’s only argument against free verse is that it has become the dominant voice, leaving few to march to a different beat. In this collection, he invites you to join him as he rhymes and meters against the tide, weaving tales where strangers are stranger than they seem, and true friends are all too few.

A native of “the great northwest” and author of Victims and Perpetrators—and, coming soon, the third impertinent issue of the X-Legged Table series: Farewell to Ordinary—John was born in Spokane, Washington, too late to prevent WWII. The third world conflict, however, he nipped in the bud by service to his country’s mighty navy in the early 1950s. Later on, he taught school, private and public and probably got away with a thing or two. How else to explain his hanging around ‘til 90?