A coyote stands in tall grass, looking alert and curious.
See the World Through Jack’s Poetry
What I Saw
MAY 23, 1939 – JANUARY 17, 2013 Philosopher, Performer, Poet, Storyteller, and Essayist
"Jack McCarthy is one of the wonders of contemporary poetry. He writes -- and often performs – dazzling narratives full of wit and humor, sadness and hard thinking."

Stephen Dobyns, Distinguished Author of 11 Volumes of Poetry and 20 Novels

Home

Drunks and Other Poems of Recovery

Forty years sober when he neared the end of his life, Jack McCarthy gives the world something special in his final collection of poetry and true stories. This is his legacy to the people who saved his life. Jack McCarthy’s poem “Drunks” has gone around the world on recovery websites and is one of the most popular poems on the harsh climb out of alcoholism to date.
“My favorite book of 2013. Just amazing. Gives me an entirely new view of what AA and addiction is about. Gave my copy to someone in recovery. Have also read it entirely again on Kindle. Fantastic.” 
— Edmund Davis-Quinn
Buy at Amazon

“What I Saw” (2012)

Asked what the theme of the work was, Jack said, “What I Saw” is something like a record he bought in the 50s called “Songs I Love to Sing.” It has several of Jack’s steadily performed poems, such as “Epithalamion: A Few Words for Kathleen” and “Cartalk III.” Thomas Lux says of Jack’s poetry, “You get lost in reading or listening to Jack McCarthy’s poems.”
Buy at Amazon

Say Goodnight, Grace Notes (2003)

Jack writes with wry insight about his boyhood, Catholicism, the Red Sox, asteroids, his daughters, old cars, advertising, our time as the “Golden Age of the Opinion,” and his love for his wife. He casually but resoundingly extrapolates invaluable lessons in living from each memory, episode, observation, and meditation.
Buy at Amazon

By Gift Unearned (2008)

This CD includes Jack McCarthy's hits: 1. “Shelves” 2. “Hard Times & Easy Chairs” 3. “The Orthopod” 4. “Phlogiston” 5. “The Swan on Nutting Lake” 6. “Relativity” 7. “Magnum Iter” 8. “You Ain’t From Round Here, Are Ya?” 9. “Odysseus Responds to Kalypso” 10. “Drunks” 11. “Epithalamion”
Buy at Amazon