1-09-2025 4:29am

Endorsement Urges Applause for Poet Phil Repko’s Book Signing

Lesley Misko Editor

Pieces of April: a poetry reading and book signing with Phil Repko Sunday, January 12, 2025, from 1-3 p.m.

~ John Yamrus

I haven’t known Phil Repko that long. Maybe a couple of years, at most. But what I’ve seen of him, I’ve liked. He seems to be a good guy with a good head on his shoulders. The first time I ran into him was at Studio B, at a reading the gallery gave to kick off one of their then-annual anthologies.

Anyway, Phil was there, and I remember him reading his work very well. He didn’t have the dreaded and hated “poet voice,” which is commonly heard at things like that. You’ve heard it...I’m sure you have. It’s a conscious or unconscious lowering of the voice, which the speaker/reader maybe thinks is gonna make what they’re reading sound important deep or something...and it doesn’t. It only makes the audience bored and anxious.

But, like I was saying, Phil got up and caught my attention because he read well and didn’t have the poet voice, and what he was reading was interesting and made me sit back and think.

Flash forward a couple of years to the here and the now, and Phil has a brand new book out...a first book...a big book that’s 162 pages of really good, tight poems. It’s called PIECES OF APRIL and the poems are warm, intelligent and fun…. heartfelt and real and true. I like these poems...and I like this book. I even kinda like Phil. He’s the kind of guy you wouldn’t mind sitting down and having a beer with. Or a glass of wine, or two.

And he proved to be that kind of guy again when I gave a reading a while back at a bookstore in Kutztown...Firefly Books...it’s one of the best little indie stores in the state…there weren’t many people there... and most of those were students from the University. In the back was a guy I immediately knew was Phil. He didn’t say anything. He just sat there, like the students.

And when I started reading, the students didn’t clap or smile or anything...they just sat there, silent and still. It took me a while to figure out that they were students and that’s what students do, especially when there’s an old man standing up in front of them reading, reciting or talking...they just sat there and did nothing.

It un-nerved me for a bit until I figured it out, but it still bothered me. Until about halfway thru, when the guy in the back row—Phil--started clapping after one of the poems, and the kids finally got the idea that it was okay to relax and have a good time.

That’s the kind of guy Phil is...nice and quiet. He doesn’t stand out from the crowd. He just does the right thing. And this book of poems of his...PIECES OF APRIL...is the right thing. I’ve got it right now, on the shelf in front of me, where I sit writing this, thinking of a night in Kutztown where the crowd was really quiet, until a guy in the back stood up and made his presence known.

Join Phil on Sunday, January 12, 2025, from 1-3 p.m. at Studio B Art Gallery, 39A E Philadelphia Avenue, Boyertown, for reading of some of his poems from his recently-released first book of poetry Pieces of April. There will be copies for sale and light refreshments, too. I agree with John. Phil’s a fine fellow I’ve known a goodly number of years and a really good poet. You’ll want to clap for him! ~Jane Stahl