Happy Neighborhood: Essays and Poems

HAPPY NEIGHBORHOOD explores through poetry and prose the cultivation of contented place. How must men in particular sift through the rewards and belabored grudges of their own childhoods in order to move productively forward? These thoughtful, carefully crafted meditations seek to define happiness at home. The poems begin with daily walks to the waterfront park near the author’s house in St. Petersburg, Florida. The essays, in dialog with the verse, explore the personal, literary, cultural, and historical questions that prompted the poems. Hallock’s influences and reading are wide ranging, which are reflective in his writing and serve to bring the soul to a proper space of rest. There is poetry about infidelity and marriage, fatherhood, insomnia, a front porch hammock, political corruption, holy communion, and homemade biscuits. This collection candidly confronts the challenges the author has faced as a father, spouse, and son.