Dancing on the X by Todd Williams

How often do we get a book that both has something important to say and is yet a joy to read? Not often, yet here is one of those books. In Dancing on the X, Todd Williams gives us sharp commentary on today’s America, but also intimate poems about family, his boyhood, the pandemic and a sense of place. It is beautifully written, with Williams’ grace, wit and joy of language unifying poems ranging from the cosmos to road kill, the Beatles to professional wrestling. In any of it, we’re in good hands with Williams’ strong, masterly writing.

–Dana Yost, author of Grace and In Your Head

“Whether he is doing it on purpose or not, with a predetermined plan or otherwise, Todd Williams in this collection of poems is a real master excavator of the past. In one poem after another, he succeeds in taking us along with him to the land of ‘Things Past’ and the kingdom of ‘No More’. But he’s not totally overwhelmed by the past. The present with its details and intricacies can also be felt and seen in many poems.”

 —Abdulwahab Abuzaid, author of A Lonely Supper for a Lonely Soul (2020) and Don’t Let the Night Alone (2022).