Milkweed Smithereens [Paperback]

A career-spanning bouquet of poems by the peerless and inimitable Bernadette Mayer Mayer writes the kind of nonsense that makes sense, and sense that is nonsense: I cant think of a better catering device in these topsy-turvy times. A poet of extraordinary inventiveness, erotic energy and challenge, and ironic intelligence. A consummate poet: would that all genius were as generous. Bernadette Mayer is one of the most original writers of her generation& All her work is full of brilliant observation, humorous and sometimes astounding conclusions, and amazing juxtapositions inspired by linguistic associations, patterns of movement, chance, mathematics, whim, and imagination. As an offering of selected works removed from all context, Mayers newest poetry collection reads like a glimpse into a vivacious mind rankled by incessant stillness and external distractions....Bracing and carnal, Mayer provides an idiosyncratic way to acknowledge changes in contemporary consciousness while framing her work in a new and dynamic light. Mayer quotes Vladimir Nabokov, in Mayers poems, like OHaras, are something else: as gorgeous, sad, elated, horny, distracted, coy, angry, kinetic, and complex as people.