Modern History: Prose Poems 1987-2007

Poetry. This intensely personal collection of symphonic prose poems uses politics, physics, popular culture, nostalgia, and off-the-wall humor to articulate and ignite metaphysical arguments. Christopher Buckley employs a sardonic wit and poignant lyricism to wheedle clarity out of chaos and coax wisdom out of absurdity. Just as he investigates and questions the vagaries of knowledge, so does he explore the prose poem, testing and probing its boundaries to see if it will accommodate his powerful insight and decidedly original outlook. His facility with scientific precepts is matched and cleverly juxtaposed with his penchant for wacky nostalgic detail; old movies, simonized Chryslers, and doo-wop music are the backdrop for a spirited glide through twenty years of this eminent poet's pursuit of the absolute. "The extravagant lyricism, the questing intelligence, the spiritual longing, the honesty and the zany humor that mark his many previous books are all at play here"--Gary Young. This is Christopher Buckley's sixteenth book of verse. He has edited four anthologies of contemporary poems, and he is currently a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry for 2007-2008. His work has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, and The Nation. He currently teaches in the creative writing department at the University of California Riverside.