The Selected Reginald Shepherd: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) - Hardcover

Shepherd, Reginald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822948214 ISBN 13: 9780822948216

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024

Synopsis

Drawing from all six of his collections, The Selected Reginald Shepherd offers a new retrospective on the work of an important and sometimes controversial Black, gay poet. Although well known for his erotic poems about white men, Shepherd also wrote consistently about the natural world and its endangerment and his grief over his mother’s death. Presented in both publication order and the order in which they originally appeared within each collection, these poems highlight the most important themes of Shepherd’s work, along with both his predictability and unpredictability as a poet. Jericho Brown’s introduction provides additional context and insight on the life and work of this complex, groundbreaking figure in American poetry.

About this title

About the Author

Reginald Shepherd (1963Ð2008) was the author of five previous books of poetry: Fata Morgana; Otherhood; Wrong; Angel, Interrupted; and Some Are Drowning. His work has been widely anthologized, and has appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry

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A Muse

?He winds through the party like wind, one of the just who live alone in black and white, bewilderedby the eden of his body. (You, you talk like winter rain.) He's the meaning of almost-morning walking home at five A.M., the difference a night makes turning over into day, simple birds staking claims on no sleep. Whatever they call those particular birds. He's the age of sensibility at seventeen, he isn't worththe time of afternoon it takes to write this down. He's the friend that lightning makes, raking the naked tree, thunder that waits for weeks to arrive; he's the certainty of torrents in September, harvest time and powerlines down for miles. He doesn't even know his name. In his body he's one with air, white as a skyrinsed with rain. It's cold there, it's hard to breathe, and drowning is somewhere to be after a month of drought.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822948214
• ISBN 13: 9780822948216
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 168
• Editor: Brown Jericho