Walking Backwards

Collected poems from America's searching and thoughtful philosopher-poet

. . . There*'s something
Comforting about rituals renewed, even adolescents'* pipe dreams:
They*'**ll find out soon enough, and meanwhile find their places
In the eternal scenery, less auguries or cautionary tales

Than parts of an unchanging whole, as ripe for contemplation
As a planisphere or the clouds: the vexed destinies, the shared life,
The sempiternal spectacle of someone preaching to the choir
While walking backwards in the moment on a warm spring afternoon.*

John Koethe's poemsalways dynamic and in process, never static or completeluxuriate in the questions that punctuate the most humdrum of routines, rendering a robust portrait of an individual: complicated, quotidian, and resounding with truth. Gathering for the first time his impressive and award-winning body of work, published between 1966 and 2016, Walking Backwards introduces this gifted poet to a new, wider readership.

Dettagli