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The Case Against Happiness

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The Case Against Happiness is the debut poetry collection of prizewinning poet Jean-Paul Pecqueur, who has previously been published in journals such as "American Letters & Commentary" and "Rain Taxi". Some of the collected poems have been slightly refined since their initial publication in a wide variety of journals; all share a characteristic, keenly whetted insight into the human condition. A dry, sardonic wit distinguishes these unforgettable free-verse contemplations. "The Case Against Happiness": Our local painter discovered Paul Klee. / He's the line that marries profit and loss / to those children of our rocky coast, / hair perfumed with the stuff of grief. / The local dentist thinks a tree is a tree's / a tree. Baker refuses to discourse at all. / He calls this pragmatism. I call Patty / but Patty's never home. Wants to stay. / Wants to call it quits. I do too. I want / to say to Happiness, Happiness, if the mind / of the man on the so-called street of dreams / meets, will the day drop off its clothes again, / its dirty, dirty laundry. Our walls, brief walks, / lie down with stunted and alien trees. / Animals, we eat the very air they breathe.