Closer to Rona

About the Book

Closer to Rona

Poems 1997-1999

The third collection of poetry to be released by Thomas Porky McDonald, Closer to Rona, Poems 1997-1999 reflects on the great love of the poet''s life, Rona Todman. The five-book set begins with Season of Destiny, which was coming to a conclusion about the time Mr. McDonald and Ms. Todman began spending more and more time together. Lasting reflections come alive in "Incompletions" and "9^th Avenue Ain''t Pretty", while requisite baseball pieces "How They Ran", "Chestnut Air" and "When Heroes Die" offer up a poet deep into his own element. The arrival of Rona spurs the second and most unique of all his poetry collections, Life With Toddy. The overwhelming majority of pieces in Toddy are directly to or about Rona, so much so that this volume is clearly McDonald''s first genuine love poem collection. "When You Go Back", "Longing For You", "Heaven Across the Triboro" and the title piece all speak of a devotion and passion not seen before from the Queens troubadour. "Dream''s Song" "Velvet Lined", "As the Lightning Froze" and "Hills of Paradise" each also define this rapturous collection.

On the heels of Toddy comes Calamine Pink, which continues to explore the relationship between the poet and his dream girl. This is most evident in "Our Eternity", "All You Need to Know" and "An Apology For Lost Time", while "Believers" and "A Sunday Cry" are verses less personal yet thought provoking. The ballpark, touched upon briefly in Toddy ("Off Elysian Pier", "To Be Mays One Day") returns vibrantly in Pink with "Blue Velvet Nightfall", "Ellwood Would Have Loved It", "A Sure Thing in Center" and "They Never Booed Hodges in Brooklyn."

The final two books in Closer to Rona are Locomotive Limbo and Legendary Unknowns. "My Desperate For You Soul", "When I''ve You" and "Time to Be a Friend" highlight Limbo, while "Pacific Blue Correspondence", "Corner Lights" and "Roads" distinguish Unknowns, which closes out a most electric time in the poet''s life.

About the Author

Thomas Porky McDonald is a poet and writer whose work is often distinguished by the use of baseball and the ballpark venue. His most recent release, At a Loss to Eternity: Baseball Teams of Note That Didn''t Win it All, spoke of a number of teams and individuals often overlooked, while a previous tome, Series Endings: A Whimsical Look at the Final Plays of Baseball''s Fall Classic, 1903-2003, offered a distinctly different view of baseball''s World Series than most mainstream histories of the Fall Classic have in the past. An earlier work, Where the Angels Bow to the Grass: A Boy''s Memoir, taken mainly from the writers'' childhood days of the 1960''s and 70''s, described the bond between McDonald and his father, Bill "The Chief McDonald. His three volume "Irishman''s Tribute" series paid homage to various heroes of the past. An Irishman''s Tribute to the Negro Leagues, Over the Shoulder and Plant on One: An Irishman''s Tribute to Willie Mays and Hit Sign, Win Suit: An Irishman''s Tribute to Ebbets Field each contained short stories and factual material, as well as a small dose of McDonald''s trademark baseball poetry. McDonald has also published a book of short stories, Paradise Oval and his singular New Yorkers'' take on 9/11, The Air That September. Closer to Rona: Poems 1997-1999 is his third of four poetry collections which will collectively span the decade of the 1990''s on into the early 21^st Century. The first two volumes, Ground Pork Poems 1989-1994 and Downtown Revival: Poems 1994-1997, were released in 2002 and 2004, and the remaining volume, Still Chuckin'': Poems 1999-2002, will arrive in the near future. A fifth collection, In the Cameo Shade: Poems 2002-2005, which is still in progress, will follow in due time.. Born in St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens, McDonald has lived in nearby Astoria his entire life.