The Walking Man is a selection of the best of William Heath’s mature and reflective poetry. These vital poems capture Heath’s grim wit, direct style, eloquent voice, varied form and eye for the incongruities of American life. Each poem has the knack to say it straight and get out with clear images and a clarity of thought.

Praise for The Walking Man

William Heath is in my opinion one of the most brilliantly accomplished and gifted young poets to appear in the United States in quite some time. I am especially moved by the delicacy and precision of the language, which indicates a distinguished intelligence, and by the purity and depth of feeling in all of his poems.     —James Wright

The Walking Man is a work of a poet who knows how to tell a story.  “Talking Story,” for instance, tells itself for exactly the right length, knowing that any elaboration would spoil it.  “Tennis at Twilight” builds subtly toward an ending that’s both surprising and darkly predicted, as “The Shining Path” builds toward its dreadful final figure.  Poems such as “The Forgotten American” and “The Boy Who Would Be Perfect” have another narrative virtue: they draw on a full reservoir or incident and invention   —Richard Wilbur

William Heath is a gifted and mature writer and his work merits a wide public audience.  He commands a great many forms, he is able to take themes of great weight and urgency, he can write with total seriousness or with great humor, and always I feel the presence of a single unifying voice.     —Philip Levine

“At Dusk the Deer” is a beautifully lucid evocation of a hushed moment between man and animal in which they come to “know” each other.  It’s a deeply moving discovery.  I think the poet has hit upon themes that will bear endless fruit.  All the poems share in that emphatic quality and have exactness and fullness of expression.     —David Ignatow

The Walking Man is a fine, solid, consistently skillful collection.  The title poem is a dazzler!  I’m variously impressed by “The End of the Road,” “My Grandfather Plowed,” “Moon Child, I Buy,” and the group of Teresa poems.     —Robert Wallace

Anyone who takes the time to thoughtfully read William Heath’s collection cannot help but be impressed by the variety and depth of the attention he brings to his subjects.  Here is a writer who looks closely—at everything.  He is a poet capable of rendering general experiences of men into a universal and exact observation.  His poems are well-constructed, offering a variety of free verse formats—quatrains, couplets, tercets.  The book is tightly conceived, varying long and short poems for excellent effect.  William Heath’s work offers the careful reader both surprise and reassurance.     —Barbara M. Simon

Heath’s poetry is careful and intelligent.  He never settles for obvious statements, but selects metaphors which permit deeper meanings.  His perceptions of human nature are keen, and his descriptions show rare insight…. Heath’s poetry has a cosmopolitan flavor.  “At the Sauna” features a group of men in Andaducia, Spain, discussing unemployment. Heartache and loneliness seep through a seemingly trivial conversation.  Heath’s best poems combine several elements, including a serious theme, particularity of language, subtle metaphor, and humor.  These poems will puzzle and delight thoughtful readers.     —Thomas Bligh