Sign-In
Cart
Change Underway: Reflective Free Verse
Paperback
Publisher: Mill City Press, Inc
Published: May 12 2026
Pages: 284
Weight: 0.84
Height: 0.64 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
This poetic exploration of working-class American transformations from WWII to the present day recalls the thrill of a sixth grader witnessing his teacher's legendary home run smashing the principal's office window; a Marine at a crossroads of ultimate despair; the goodness of a reformed convict serving a long sentence without the possibility of parole; a skilled immigrant whose dreams land him a menial job washing windows; an enigmatic interethnic love hurdle; a dying AIDS victim rejoiced by his heterosexual teammates; a pioneer real estate developer's reputation destroyed by audacious racism; an incredible secret discovered by chance through ancestral DNA; a barber saving a family from deportation . . . and more.
Here, too, are musings on the animate, inanimate, and fourth dimension. The final ten poems, under the arching title Wrench, are a bold consideration of rapidly deteriorating American democracy.
Richard J. Ackerman Jr. is a retired orthodontist and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He was born and raised in Kansas. He served in the U.S. Air Force Dental Corps in Alaska, followed by thirty-six years as a university educator and private practitioner. Upon retirement, he began writing poetry. This is his third book. He and his wife split their time between California, Colorado, and Missouri. They have two married children, three grandchildren, and a Labrador mix named Aspen.
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover