Poem of the Week: “Labor Day Party” by Floyd Skloot

The VPR Poem of the Week is Floyd Skloot’s “Labor Day Party,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2002 issue (Volume III, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Floyd Skloot is a nonfiction writer, poet, and novelist whose work has been published widely in periodicals such as American Scholar, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, New York Times, Poetry, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His fifteen books include Selected Poems: 1970-2005 (Tupelo Press, 2008), which won a 2009 Pacific NW Booksellers Association Book Award. His sixth collection of new poems, The Snow’s Music, appeared from LSU Press in 2008. He received the 2004 PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction for his memoir, In the Shadow of Memory (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). His recent memoir, The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life, was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2008.

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.