Photo by Kate Walker
Tyler Gillespie a fifth-generation Floridian, educator, and award-winning writer.
The poem closed with the reminder that “our joy is a resistance itself,” and the work appears in a new, extended version of Gillespie’s book “Florida Man: Poems, Revisited,” out March 12 via Orlando’s Burrow Press.
Gillespie, an expert in explaining that thing about Florida, is fresh off being quoted in the New York Times’ coverage of the Florida Man Games, where he told the paper that there are countless regular Floridians who're just trying to find a way to get by in the Sunshine State.
His book also shines a light on locals and reminds readers that there’s more to the Florida Man meme than a punchline. To do that, the fifth-generation Floridian pulls the veil back on the mythology of the state’s inhabitants and focuses on the Sunshine State’s history and culture using work that is at times wonderfully messy (just like we are), but always complex and fulfilling.
All told, 20 new poems, including ““a poem for Pride as it gets cancelled in some Florida cities” and yet another new work Gillespie shares below, are included.
To celebrate the book’s release next week, Gillespie will read from the work, then have a conversation with Bay area artists Gloria Muñoz and Chad Mize.
RSVPs are encouraged for the “Florida Man: Poems, Revisited” book release with Tyler Gillespie happening Tuesday, March 12 at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg.
Read Gillespie’s “on a day i’m feeling especially bummed out about florida” and his explanation of the work below.
on a day i’m feeling especially bummed out about florida
I’m late for work & stuck
on a bridge in traffic when I
spot a hawk overhead with silver
lining clutched in its talons.
Bird flaps sailboat winds
as fish pulses final moments
in day full of sherbet colors:
orange cream & strawberry
delight. They disappear in jewel
water – my favorite color: sand
reaching from ocean floor to touch
sky. Corner of my eye, dolphin breaks
surface. In this moment I swear
I see God. Traffic finally moves.
From Gillespie:
You already know Florida Man. He’s thrown an alligator at a drive-thru window. Shot a gun at a hurricane. Wielded a machete. That’s the version of Florida Man the rest of the country knows, and I wrote Florida Man: Poems in 2018 to show a version of Florida man – with a lowercase m – that we know.
I’m a fifth-generation Floridian, and the book presents a version of the state’s cultural and environmental history through the prism of Florida Man – who is still one of our mascots (last week the New York Times interviewed me about him for their piece on The Florida Man Games in St. Augustine).
Although Florida Man sticks around, a lot has changed – both in Florida and my writing – since the collection’s original publication. To reflect this reality, the Orlando-based publisher Burrow Press asked if I’d want to write new poems for the “revisited” edition out on March 12.
There’s so much going on in our state right now, so I wrote 20 new poems in the added section Heat Advisory.
This addition gave me space to speak to Floridians who are deeply concerned about the state’s future through pieces like “a poem for Pride as it gets cancelled in some Florida cities,” which was commissioned over the summer by St. Pete Pride and published by Creative Loafing.
The extended section also allowed me to expand my landscape of poetic techniques with collages, found poems, and audio poems – readers can scan QR codes to hear my voice as well as sounds from alligators and administrators.
The poems get sweaty, but they still know how to have fun like the love poem about Florida I’ve chosen to share. There might be a lot currently going on in my home state that I don’t necessarily love, but it’s still home. It’s still Florida, man.
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