New Selected Poems
Starred Review.Strand's 1980Selected Poemshas probably long had a home on most contemporary poetry readers' shelves. That book proclaimed Strand's status as a major poet writing in a sometimes surreal, humorous, oracular mode: If a man gives up poetry for power/ he shall have lots of power. This new volume extends that book to encompass the intervening two and a half decades and four collections of poems. From youthful masterpieces like the famous Keeping Things Whole (In a field/ I am the absence/ of field) through the haunting middle work ofDarker(The future is not what it used to be./ The graves are ready. The dead/ shall inherit the dead) up to the self-conscious vignettes of the Pulitzer Prize–winningBlizzard of One(It was clear when I left the party/ That though I was over eighty I still had/ A beautiful body) and last year'sMan and Camel(The wonder of their singing,/ its elusive blend of man and camel, seemed/ an ideal image for all uncommon couples), this important book offers the first panoramic view of the ongoing career of a poet who has mattered deeply to poets and readers alike. Strand's is one of the contemporary voices that will not fade.(Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.