Swirl Vortex: Collected Poems [Hardcover]

All the blazingly original work by Larry Levis, one of the greatest poets of a generation (Carolyn Forch?)

The poetry of Larry Levis increasingly occupies a legendary place of reverence among poets and readersthe spell of his reputation only continuing to widen in the thirty years since his death. From the briefer lyrics and deep image-making of his early books to the long sequences and operatic narratives of his last works, Leviss poems have an unmistakable signature, a way of expressing the sweep of history, perception, and heartbreak. Over his career, his poetic lines broadened to accommodate the cinematic aperture of his observations on American empire, poverty, landscape, migrant workers, political violence, addiction, and art. Leviss expansive poems came to resemble the interconnecting patterns just discernible in the eddies of a stream or the leaves circling in a wind.

Swirl & Vortexat last makes all of Leviss poetry available in one definitive volume. This collection includes the five books published in Leviss lifetime, a brilliant reconfiguration of Leviss posthumous books, and unpublished late poems, edited and with an afterword by David St. John. To trace Leviss poetic development into his extraordinary late style of firecut short by his early deathis one of the singular experiences in contemporary poetry.Swirl & Vortexis an essential collection by one of the great poets of the end of the twentieth century, and a transformative work spiraling out toward our future.

Necessary for every poetry library . . . as reference, tour, and, as bonus, touchil'