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WATERSHED, poetry by Robert Walicki
Publication Date: December 3, 2025
Paperback, 116 pages
ISBN: 978-1-966677-25-3
At least since David Ignatow’s injunction to “Get the gasworks in a poem” there have been poets answering the call to tell the truth of working-class life. Robert Walicki is an especially apt practitioner, writing out of first-hand experience while wielding the tools of language. In the title poem of his new collection Watershed, his neighbor “speaks the language of plumber,” and the guiding metaphor throughout is the flow of water, replete with mud and rust and freezing rain. “I didn’t know this was all about structure, about surety, / about everything we gave our bodies to except for what mattered.” Here he shows what matters, and how “Grief can overtake you but grief isn’t you.” Writing for those “more Miller than IPA” he declares “I have nothing to offer / but daylight on a chipped window ledge” – and it’s more than enough.
Praise for Robert Walicki & Watershed
The poetry of the working class has a long history in the American tradition, but in this moment of division and rage, it feels more necessary than ever. Throughout his profound collection, Robert Walicki teaches that accuracy is kindness, attention is compassion. Replacing commentary and summation with intimacy, Walicki brings us close to men who would rather die than have their guns taken, who speak “in the greasy language / of thrust block and spark plug.” This, too, is the language of poetry, and Walicki says, “I don’t understand, but I love how the words hit me / four banger, 6 banger, the launch and the drift.” And in another poem, when he writes, “I’m opening like a switchblade, a safety latch,” I believe him and lean in to learn more.
—Jacqueline Berger, author of Left at the Ruin
Watershed is a stunning collection that blends the lyrical and narrative with soaring transcendental moments of insight and wonder. Walicki finds the sacred in the ordinary with imagery so sharp and precise that we squint in the face of it. He earns everything—these poems never take the easy way out. Those lonely moments of going to and from work can seem so familiar, Walicki realizes we can get lost in the going back and forth. With an eye towards repair, toward making due, he nurtures the life of the spirit. Survival is the goal—with soul intact in the battle between tough exteriors, tender hearts.
—Jim Daniels, author of Gun/Shy & other books
“Just remember. / You were here for this” could be the truest words ever written. And much as the body never forgets its pain and pleasures, Bob Walicki’s writing never lets us forget what it means to be “straddled across a ladder while / pipes vomit up a hospital full of psych meds and chemo, / the shit of the dying, thickening into arteries of rock, and closure.” This is the work of the real made beautiful by its immersion, a world Walicki is both tethered to and has transcended as the costs surround his speakers in the tangible aftermaths of living and dying. Or as an ironworker mentions, “Rust is a good thing... Just the right amount makes the metal stronger.” Read this book and it’ll do the same for you.
—Fred Shaw, author of Scraping Away
About the Author
Robert Walicki’s aesthetic speaks to the rich tradition of working-class poetry through his years of his experiences in the construction fields. A two-time Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert’s previous poetry collections are Black Angels, from Six Gallery Press, and Fountain, from Main Street Rag Press.
Publication Date: December 3, 2025
Paperback, 116 pages
ISBN: 978-1-966677-25-3
At least since David Ignatow’s injunction to “Get the gasworks in a poem” there have been poets answering the call to tell the truth of working-class life. Robert Walicki is an especially apt practitioner, writing out of first-hand experience while wielding the tools of language. In the title poem of his new collection Watershed, his neighbor “speaks the language of plumber,” and the guiding metaphor throughout is the flow of water, replete with mud and rust and freezing rain. “I didn’t know this was all about structure, about surety, / about everything we gave our bodies to except for what mattered.” Here he shows what matters, and how “Grief can overtake you but grief isn’t you.” Writing for those “more Miller than IPA” he declares “I have nothing to offer / but daylight on a chipped window ledge” – and it’s more than enough.
Praise for Robert Walicki & Watershed
The poetry of the working class has a long history in the American tradition, but in this moment of division and rage, it feels more necessary than ever. Throughout his profound collection, Robert Walicki teaches that accuracy is kindness, attention is compassion. Replacing commentary and summation with intimacy, Walicki brings us close to men who would rather die than have their guns taken, who speak “in the greasy language / of thrust block and spark plug.” This, too, is the language of poetry, and Walicki says, “I don’t understand, but I love how the words hit me / four banger, 6 banger, the launch and the drift.” And in another poem, when he writes, “I’m opening like a switchblade, a safety latch,” I believe him and lean in to learn more.
—Jacqueline Berger, author of Left at the Ruin
Watershed is a stunning collection that blends the lyrical and narrative with soaring transcendental moments of insight and wonder. Walicki finds the sacred in the ordinary with imagery so sharp and precise that we squint in the face of it. He earns everything—these poems never take the easy way out. Those lonely moments of going to and from work can seem so familiar, Walicki realizes we can get lost in the going back and forth. With an eye towards repair, toward making due, he nurtures the life of the spirit. Survival is the goal—with soul intact in the battle between tough exteriors, tender hearts.
—Jim Daniels, author of Gun/Shy & other books
“Just remember. / You were here for this” could be the truest words ever written. And much as the body never forgets its pain and pleasures, Bob Walicki’s writing never lets us forget what it means to be “straddled across a ladder while / pipes vomit up a hospital full of psych meds and chemo, / the shit of the dying, thickening into arteries of rock, and closure.” This is the work of the real made beautiful by its immersion, a world Walicki is both tethered to and has transcended as the costs surround his speakers in the tangible aftermaths of living and dying. Or as an ironworker mentions, “Rust is a good thing... Just the right amount makes the metal stronger.” Read this book and it’ll do the same for you.
—Fred Shaw, author of Scraping Away
About the Author
Robert Walicki’s aesthetic speaks to the rich tradition of working-class poetry through his years of his experiences in the construction fields. A two-time Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert’s previous poetry collections are Black Angels, from Six Gallery Press, and Fountain, from Main Street Rag Press.