Like poets across the ages, Young is grounded and experienced in the pride and prejudice of his own times, and yet he can jump right over the moon and straight ...
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Like poets across the ages, Young is grounded and experienced in the pride and prejudice of his own times, and yet he can jump right over the moon and straight at the sun. Whether sonnetizing love or loss, laughing at smug social presumptions, condemning CIA drug deals, the thriving prison industry, biotech food, greed in a darkening stockocracy, or celebrating eternal verities, he writes with spirit, imagination, and hope.
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Description: Like New. As issued no jacket. Paperback. Like new condition with no markings and no creases to spine or cover. Very slight curl to cover. Near fine copy.
Description: Very Good. 088739373X From Publishers Weekly Mellow echoes of Langston Hughes's "Dream Deferred" rumble in the title of Young's latest collection, but the 140-odd short poems here have at least as much to do with Charles Bukowski's pointed ramblings, as they are long on mystique and sentiment. A readable and topical history of the decade in op-eds and sermons, this book could nevertheless use weeding; Young (Conjugal Visits) goes for the easy laugh and knowing nod a few times too often. At their best, though, these meditations on love, travel, politics and misbehavior transcend their plays on familiar phrases: "Human conditioning feels nothing like air/ conditioning" with shockingly specific language "`Those were the nastiest stewardesses/ I've ever seen'? `How nasty were they? '/ `Take my word, they was nasty. They had/ strings of spit hangin from they mouth, / they had make-up all graped up in they eyes. / O they was nasty! '" Casual blank verse gives way to fluid, rhyming iambic pentameter in poems like "The Old Country": "What is it we want, / or need to haul or lug like Motorolas/ of the blood? Beep! The mileage we squander/ on these jumps from mayonnaise Minnesotas/ to curry Calcuttas, from Tokyos you could wander. " Readers will have to search for such standouts, but they sing out like Motorolas of the blood. (May) Forecast: Young, whose oeuvre includes hard-to-find novels and memoirs, was the judge of this year's Cave Canem poetry prize. This collection should set the stage for a larger-budget selection of his work. And the loyal fans of his San Francisco base will certainly pick it up in local stores. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Product Description In this latest collection, Al Young demonstrates why his poetry is loved and followed worldwide. At a time when most American poets are writing what Lawrence Ferlinghetti calls "a kind of prose masquerading in the typography of poetry, " Al Young sings. His ear for music never lets him forget that the body is the boom-box of poetry. A master of dramatic monologue, Young continues to work in the many voices and forms that distinguish his work. Rare among contemporary poets, he almost never uses the pronoun "I" to refer to himself. His contempt for the unremitting arrogance of the confessional mode is hardly a secret. Like poets across the ages, Young is grounded and experienced in the pride and prejudice of his own times, and yet he can jump right over the moon and straight at the sun. Whether sonnetizing love or loss, laughing at smug social presumptions, condemning CIA drug deals, the thriving prison industry, bio-tech food, greed in a darkening stockocracy, or celebrating eternal verities, Al Young writes with spirit, imagination, and hope.
Description: Very Good. SIGNED w/INSCRIPTION by AUTHOR on Title Page! 2001 Creative Arts Book Company (Publisher, Berkeley, CA) Trade Paperback; text clean/UNMARKED; color cover surface rubbing w/minor scratches/edge curling w/corner bends; spine strong + uncreased; NOT x-library; No remainder mark; Not book club; 136 pages + 16 preliminary pgs; 3 sections/144 poems; author biography; color front cover art is a collage, "Moments Are Feathers, " by Vivian Torrence; "Al Young sings. His ear for music never lets him forget the body is the boom-box of poetry...Like poets across the ages, Young is grounded + experienced in the pride + prejudice of his own times, + yet he can jump right over the moon + straight at the sun. Whether sonnetizing love or loss, laughing at smug social presumptions, condemning CIA drug deals, the driving prison industry, bio-tech food, greed in a darkening stockocracy or celebrating eternal verities, Young writes w/spirit, imagination, + hope"; book itself is very good, cover has curling, overall good plus to very good inscribed collectible copy of 8-year-old out-of-print important poetry paperback.
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