“Deity-Alphabets, Carroll Kearley’s luminous first book of poems, gives testimony to Keat’s knowledge that humanity’s certainty resides in “the holiness of the Heart’s affections.” Plain-spoken yet naturally resonant, Kearley’s poems of witness “unravel threads of tortured talk” inherent in the lives of the homeless. He reminds us that language, our common bond, offers the vivid grammar of the spirit, the “fractured syntax” of seeing ourselves in others, and that “each bearer of a name/ has an irreplaceable impress.” The poet, “his voice, a second violin” brings the beauty of these “common flowers” to our attention, and we are so very grateful for it.”
—Elena Karina Byrne
“Carroll Kearley has spent years stopping by an outdoor market in Santa Monica where homeless men and women gather to beg, sell, or entertain. He does not go there to understand or report on their “plight.” His aim is not that of a sociologist or journalist or documentarian. He is just interested in them as people, each with distinctive tastes and a personal story. It is a labor of love and admiration. The poems voice not only dreams deferred or hopes broken, but tiny victories, affordable vanities, and survival strategies.”
—Garry Wills
Carroll C.Kearley was born in a farmhouse near Buhl, Idaho July 6, 1930. In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, he entered the University of Santa Clara. He graduated with a degree in English Literature. In 1963 he was awarded the Ph.D. in Philosophy by the University of Notre Dame. He followed the profession of university teacher. He completed that career by teaching at Loyola Marymount University from 1966 until 1995. Deity-Alphabets is his first collection.
