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Dark Horses

New Poems

X. J. Kennedy

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In Dark Horses prize-winning poet X. J. Kennedy gathers forty-two new poems rich in sound and sense. All display uncommon skill and an ability to treat matters both timeless and contemporary.

From the lighhearted ballad "Dancing with the Poets at Piggy's" to the darkly meditative lyric "The Waterbury Cross," the poems show Kennedy's wide range. There are intimate portraits of a woman veterinarian and a young man dying of AIDS, a song about the Sri Lankan festival of Buddha's tooth, and a stark account of a confrontation with a homeless panhandler. "Emily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World"...

In Dark Horses prize-winning poet X. J. Kennedy gathers forty-two new poems rich in sound and sense. All display uncommon skill and an ability to treat matters both timeless and contemporary.

From the lighhearted ballad "Dancing with the Poets at Piggy's" to the darkly meditative lyric "The Waterbury Cross," the poems show Kennedy's wide range. There are intimate portraits of a woman veterinarian and a young man dying of AIDS, a song about the Sri Lankan festival of Buddha's tooth, and a stark account of a confrontation with a homeless panhandler. "Emily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World" on the newly installed answering machine in her Amherst homestead. Finding a "Woodpile Skull" — the severed head of a black ant — makes the poet laugh at his own expense as he plays "ham Hamlet to a formic Yorick."

Enlivened by X. J. Kennedy's sardonic humor, wit, and insight into the human condition, the "dark horses" of this newest collection represent the finely crafted work of one of America's best-known and most widely respected poets.

Reviews

Reviews

Mordant, funny, and even sometimes rather frightening; the poet, so much in control of his formal means, seems himself rather dismayed by the fearful things he points to.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
88
ISBN
9780801844850
Author Bio
X. J. Kennedy
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X. J. Kennedy

X. J. Kennedy has written poetry, children's verse, and fiction as well as textbooks on writing and literature. Before becoming a full-time writer, he taught at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina–Greensboro, Tufts University, Wellesley College, the University of California–Irvine, and Leeds University. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife and sometime...