New Selected Things Taking Place

"Jackson Mac Low's poetry and prose exceeds narrow definitions of artists by movements or poets by style. His work began with and returned to timeless subjects such as children, animals, love, war, death, and God, diverging at points into rigorously imposed structures, systems, and chance operations in an effort to suppress the ego in his art. At one point, embarrassed by his depth of feeling, Mac Low confesses to being an 'existential poet,' a declaration that the title of the poem A Lack of Balance But Not Fatal contradicts with modest and generous humor. This is an important and often very moving anthology of Mac Low's thought, at the same time as it reflects the preoccupations of his generation and ranges over a wide variety of approaches to writing and art making. Thing of Beauty is a "manifesto," the term Mac Low would use to describe expressions of personal truth; and his are beautiful."—Kristine Stiles, Professor of Art History, Duke University "In this generous selection of Jackson Mac Low's work, we can see, first hand, the poet's profound understanding of the physics of language and his exuberant articulation of the sounds of words in unpredictable motions. The multiplicity of Mac Low's forms and his rejection of any hierarchy among the forms of poetry (objective and subjective, expository or nonrepresentational, lyric and epic), along with his refusal to identify poetic composition with a characteristic 'voice' of the poet and his rejection of traditional aesthetic standards of beauty, are among the chief marks of his iconoclastic genius. Mac Low's magnificent and multidimensional poems open vast expanses for the imagination to inhabit."—Charles Bernstein "This is one of the great watershed events in recent publishing history. Mac Low's reputation has exploded on the poetry scene since his death."—Hannah Higgins, author of Fluxus Experience

The long-awaited new collection from Lee K. Abbott, "Cheever's true heir, our major American short story writer" (William Harrison). Here are stories about fathers and sons, stories about men and women, and stories about the relationships between men by one of our most gifted story writers. The narrator of "The Who, the What and the Why," begins breaking into his own house as a sort of therapy after his daughter dies. In "The Human Use of Inhuman Beings," the main character realizes that his closest relationship is to an angel, who appears to him only to announce the death of loved ones. All Things, All at Once reminds us why Lee K. Abbott is to be treasured: his perfect pitch for tales of hapless Southwesterners, his way with sympathetic irony, his eye that skillfully notes the awkward humiliations—common heartbreak, fractured families—and records it all in lyrical, affectionate language. In tales new and from previous collections Abbott examines lived life and the lies we necessarily tell about it.

A momentous collection from the author of Brooklyn Antediluvian, winner of the 2017 Lenore Marshall Prize from Academy of American Poets For nearly two decades, Patrick Rosal has been one of the most beloved and admired poets in the United States, bringing together the most dynamic aspects of literary and performance poetry. The son of Filipino immigrants (his father was a lapsed Catholic priest), he has made a life of bridging worlds—literary, ethnic, national, spiritual—through his poetry, and has been recognized with some of the highest honors and countless devoted readers. The Last Thing: New & Selected Poems, gives us a substantial playlist of new work—hard-hitting and big-hearted—along with ample selections from his first four books. Bursting with music, infused with love and awe, this is essential reading from a poet of vigor and conscience.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

The Secret Meaning of Things is Lawrence Ferlinghetti's fourth book of poems.

Vol. 8 includes guidelines to poetry explication.