Kleinzahler Rocks!

books:


	• Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems, New and Selected August Kleinzahler Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Kleinzahler Rocks!

I discovered August Kleinzahler when I became intrigued by an article based on an interview with him in the New York Times a couple of years ago, and then read a poem on-line (can't remember if it was in the interview or elsewhere) that made me suck in breath out of recognition. I immediately ordered Green Sees Things In Waves, a book that pleased me no end, and now I have ordered and received Sleeping It Off in Rapid City, which is full of treasures. Some of my favourites so far are "Shoot The Freak" and "A Valentine: Regarding the Impracticability of Our Love." In addition to his magical way with words and images, I love the way the world is with him and everywhere in his poems: not crushing his work, but rather informing it. Or rather he informs the world. Popular culture is everywhere (hence the title of this review). It's great. I am reading his poems the way I ought to eat dark chocolates, slowly, savouring each one, not rushing on to the next. So I'm only on page 52 -- just started the poem on that page -- but I felt compelled to say something about this book right now so that other poetry appreciators may be tempted to get it and enjoy it too. (Those that don't already know about him, that is: when I told some of my poet friends about this great poet I'd just discovered, I got a "Duh... Where have YOU been?" kind of response from the ones I most respect.)

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The first broad retrospective of August Kleinzahler?s career, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City gathers poems from his major works along with a rich portion of new poems that visit different voice registers, experiment with form and length, and confirm Kleinzahler as among the most inventive and brilliant poets of our time. Travel?actual and imaginary?remains a passion and inspiration, and in these pages the poet also finds ?This sanctified ground / Here, yes, here / The dead solid center of the universe / At the heart of the heart of America.?

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