Elegy (Pitt Poetry Series)
Larry Levis was an outstanding poet, and a student and colleague ofPhilip Levine. Levine,  who edited this posthumous manuscript, writes that Levis's "early death is a  staggering loss for our poetry, but what he left  is a major achievement that will enrich  our lives for as long as poetry matters."  That's high praise, and the poems inElegyare sturdy enough to carry the weight of those expectations. Especially  striking is "The Oldest Living Thing in L.A.," an encounter between  urbanites trapped within the prisons of their routines, and an ancient-seeming possum  crossing a busy city street: "It would lift its black lips & show them / The reddened  gums, the long rows of incisors, / Teeth that went all the way back beyond / The flames  of Troy & Carthage..." Levis's writing is marked by memorable imagery that  resonates both to the  world of our daily lives and our mythic longings for transcendence.