Far Side of the Earth

Widely considered one of the finest poets of his generation, Tom Sleigh brings to his new collection his trademark intensity and craftsmanship. In these poems, small things reveal large metaphysical and historical correspondences. In "Newsreel," for instance, the entire Cold War era comes to a drive-in movie theater, as Marilyn Monroe's screen image gives way to a tale of sci-fi Armageddon. In the elegiac "New York American Spell, 2001," Sleigh combines ancient spells with reportage of terrorism. Sleigh's overarching theme is the ever-changing face of love. As in Ovid's Metamorphoses, his poems reveal the workings of eros, for good or ill, in all its public and private guises. Sleigh here mixes the streetwise edginess of popular culture with Greek and Latin references, myths, and dramatic lyric. His unexpected fusion of poetic forms grounds these poems in what is familiar, but also what is on the far side of experience in the most sinister and transcendent aspects of contemporary reality. Passionately comprehensive in its understanding of this reality, Far Side of the Earth is unique for its moral gravitas, consolatory power, and strangeness of vision.

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