Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
A selection representative of 25 years of work and nine books, fromLost Pilot(1967) through Reckoner (1986), these poems showcase Tate's talent for surreal entertainment that reveals an underlying serious point. He writes: "I am surrounded by the pieces of this huge/puzzle: here's a piece I call my wife, and/ here's an odd one I call convictions, here's/ conventions, here's collisions, conflagrations . . . " In such high comedy Tate leaves lingering questions about the problems of existence, while leaving too a smile on the reader's face. The book won the 1992Pulitzer Prizefor poetry.