Deeply felt and carefully constructed, the poems in this new collection by Clarence Major both acknowledge poetic literary tradition and explore exciting new narrative and lyrical territories. Throughout Sporadic Troubleshooting, Major uses jazz-like improvisation, applying it to well-known mythological stories to enhance narrative intensity the way Miles Davis applies innovative techniques to a standard Cole Porter number. Breathtakingly vivid, these poems are testaments to such universal subjects as love, charity, nature, fear, survival, loyalty, justice, and beauty. Major's poems offer hopeful glimpses of life with a view toward renewal and transformation"--