University of Illinois
Press
(forthcoming April 2005)
Urbana and Chicago
In his first book as the poet laureate of Illinois, Kevin Stein shulders
an array of poetic forms, blending pathos, humor, and social commentary.
These poems - ranging from meditative narratives to improvisational lyrics
- explore art's capacity to embody as well as express contemporary culture.
Stein embraces subjects as various as his father's death, magazine sex
surveys, Kandinsky's theory of art, the dangling modifier, Jimi Hendrix's
flaming guitar, racial bigotry, and a teacher's comments on a botched
poem. Presiding over this miscellany are ghosts of a peculiarly American
garden of dreamers and beloved misfits, those redeemed and those left
fingering the locked gate.
