The Taxi that Got Me Here Is Idling on Saturn's Rings is a psychedelic, soulful, and humorous journey of a poet navigating what it means to be an American, a New Yorker, and a traveler of the world in a time that increasingly appears less democratic, equitable, and tolerant than we thought. With a journalist's love of description, a painter's eye for detail, and a social worker's concern for those left out of the equation, Edgley probes the ethos of the outsider and the ethics of the exploited. Like the African vendor in "The Merchant of Venice," who has been pushed to the fringes of the town to sell his replica wares, and ultimately climbs the city's highest tower to replace the sun with a beaming fake Rolex, Edgley's poems are an authentic beacon in an inauthentic time.

Sean Edgley's first book, a collection of thirty-three poems, explores the life of a 21st century poet in New York City. Many of the poems converge at the crossroads of literature, film, music, and painting. Life lived is juxtaposed with life written. Americana is pitted against the metropolitan ethos. Throughout injury, illusion, and longing, humor surfaces as a healing mechanism, a vision of self-help. For the poet, life, with all its chaos, uncertainty, and idiosyncrasies, is redeemed through art. The necessity of travel as a way to see ourselves anew is a constant, as we are taken on trips from the south of France to Venice, from California to the rings of Saturn. We encounter van Gogh, Bukowski, and are privy to a reinterpretation of the battle of David and Goliath. Dreams intersect with reality, and often overtake them in vividness. As Jean Genet said, "A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness." When the dawn draws closer over a Northern California beach, these poems illuminate, nursing us back into the day.