Synopses & Reviews
"[Lux is] sui generis, his own kind of poet, unlike any of the fashions of his time." Stanley Kunitz
Thomas Lux is humorous, edgy, and ever surprising in The Cradle Place, his tenth collection of verse. These fifty-two poems question language and intention and the sometimes untidy connections between the human and natural worlds. Lux has long been an outspoken advocate for the relevance of poetry in American culture, and his voice is urgent and unrelentingly evocative. As Sven Birkerts has noted, Lux may be one of the poets on whom the future of the genre depends.”
A book full of arresting images . . . The natural world, as it appears here, is at first lovely . . . but turns out dangerously vanquished . . . Not since Plath has hysteria looked this kissable." San Francisco Chronicle
Lux has a gift for the swiftly turned expression . . . Such immediacy and quirkiness will hold a reader." Poetry
"Readers will be mesmerized." Poetry Book of the Year, Library Journal
THOMAS LUX holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry and is director of the McEver Visiting Writers Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has been awarded three NEA grants and the Kingsley Tufts Award, and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. He lives in Atlanta.
Synopsis
God Particles displays the distinctive originality and unpredictability that prompted the Washington Post Book World to name Lux one of this generations most gifted poets. A satiric edge, tempered by profound compassion, cuts through many of the poems in Luxs book. While themes of intolerance, inhumanity, loss, and a deep sense of mortality mark these poems, a lighthearted grace instills even the somberest moments with unexpected sweetness. In the title poem Lux writes, theres no reason for God to feel guilt / I think He was downhearted, weary, too weary / to be angry anymore . . . / He wanted each of us, / and all the things we touch . . . / to have a tiny piece of Him / though we are unqualified, / of even the crumb of a crumb.” Dark, humorous, and strikingly imaginative, this is Luxs most compassionate work to date.
Synopsis
A brilliant new collection of poems by Kingsley Tufts Award-winning poet Thomas Lux
With To the Left of Time, Thomas Lux adds more than fifty new poems to his celebrated oeuvre. Broken into three sections, these include semi-autobiographical poems, odes, and a final section that delves into a variety of subjects reflective of Lux's imaginative range. Full of his characteristic satire and humor, this new collection promises laughter and profound insight into the human condition.
To the Left of Time is a powerful addition to the work of one who has been widely praised for his ability to offer image- and metaphor-driven visions as well as lines of plain language and immediacy. This collection proves that Lux's work will continue to inspire readers for decades to come.
Synopsis
A brilliant new collection of poems by Kingsley Tufts Award–winning poet Thomas Lux
Synopsis
With
To the Left of Time, Thomas Lux adds over fifty new poems to his celebrated oeuvre. Broken into three sections, these include autobiographical poems, odes, and a final section that delves into a variety of subjects reflective of Lux's imaginative range. Full of his characteristic satire and humor, this new collection promises laughter and profound insight into the human condition.
To the Left of Time is a powerful addition to the work of one who has been widely praised for his ability to offer image and metaphor-driven visions as well as lines of plain language and immediacy. This collection proves that Lux's work will continue to inspire readers for decades to come.
About the Author
Thomas Lux is the author of 13 books of poems and one book of nonfiction. Bourne Professor of Poetry and Director of the McEver Visiting Writers Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, his awards include the Kingsley Tufts Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three NEA Fellowships, and the Robert Creeley Award.
Table of Contents
Contents
I The Gentleman Who Spoke Like Music 3 Behind the Horseman Sits Black Care 4 The Hungry Gap-Time 5 Hitlers Slippers 6 Sleeps Ambulance 7 Lump of Sugar on an Anthill 8 Stink Eye 9 The Lead Hour 10 The First Song 11 Peacocks in Twilight 12 Nolens Volens (Whether Willing or Unwilling) 13 Gravy Boat Goes over Waterfall 14 The General Law of Oblivion 15 Midmorning 16 Put the Bandage on the Sword and Not the Wound 17 The Harmonic Scalpel 18 The Republic of Anesthesia 19 Man Pedaling Next to His Bicycle 20 Her Hat, That Party on Her Head 21 Eyes Scooped Out and Replaced by Hot Coals 22 The Pier Aspiring 23
II God Particles 27 Their Feet Shall Slide in Due Time 28 Invective 29 Jesus Baby Teeth 30 How Difficult 31 Apology to My Neighbors for Beheading Their Duck 32 Antinomianism 33 5,495 34 The Utopian Wars 36 The Joy-Bringer 37
III The Happy Majority 41 Cliffs Shining with Rain 42 The Shooting Zoo 43 The Ambrosiana Library 44 The Deathwatch Beetle 46 Mole Emerging from Trench Wall, Verdun, 1916 47 The Grand Climacteric 48 Vaticide 49 Early Blur 50 Sex After Funerals 51 Puzzlehead 52 Blue Vistas Glued 53 The American Duel 54 Toad on Golf Tee 55 And the Mice Made Marriage All Night 56 Vinegar on Chalk 57 Autobiographophobia 58 Sugar Spoon 60 A Clearing, a Meadow, in Deep Forest 61
Notes 63