A new collection of poems by Burt Kimmelman, including the long series Plague Calendar about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Burt Kimmelman's new poems continue his exploration of syllabic forms. The book's first section contains individual poems written in recent years, each standing on its own as a unique experience. Plague Calendar, which follows, consists of especially brief and understated poems presented in the order of their inception. They subtly chronicle an individual's psychological endurance over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, person and landscape reveal a transformation in recent time, an individual's experience of daily life.
That every shadow of wonder can stand forth in the most familiar words is the gift this poet offers his readers time and again. -- Susan Howe
Form calls deeply to form, as though the works lifted one to the very brim of language. -- Michael Heller
He observes the natural world, the plaintive cry noted, but never breaking the reverie. -- Barbara Henning
A strict and powerful accounting, leaving me filled with admiration. -- Jerome Rothenberg
A rare evocation ... the wonder of this world in itself. -- Robert Creeley
He finds what is luminously transcendent. -- Harvey Shapiro
Kimmelman is obviously a master of his chosen strategies. -- Hugh Seidman
His poems so gracefully demonstrate classic notions of what the practice of poetry must be. -- Madeline Tiger, Jacket2
Kimmelman creates himself through effacement, humility, the joy and terror of being alive. -- Hasanthika Sirisena, American Book Review
Kimmelman's poems attest to the simple majesties of being, the massive implications of the everyday. -- Eric Hoffman, Rain Taxi
Poetry.
