Ode to the Cold War: Poems New and Selected

Finding a new poet to admire is like Christmas. Dick Allen is a tremendous talent among whose honors is a National Books Critics Circle Final Nomination. No wonder! Reading his poems is seeing fresh, surprising images and events to which I keep saying, "Yes, that's it! " This collection includes both new poems and selections from previous collections. The thoughtfulness and gentility of the poems, the generosity of Allen's gift for turning the idea over and over to see it from all sides, enables our '90s version of transcendence: We escape from the grind of this world into Allen's inspired vision.