Proceed to Check Out
Alan Shapiro
- Award-winning
- poet
- Alan
- Shapiro
- offers
- a
- new
- collection
- of
- poems
- reflecting
- on
- mortality
- and
- finitude.Alan
- Shapiro’s
- fourteenth
- collection
- of
- poetry,
- Proceed
- to
- Check
- Out,
- is
- a
- kind
- of
- summing
- up,
- or
- stock-taking,
- by
- an
- aging
- poet,
- of
- his
- precarious
- place
- in
- a
- world
- dominated
- by
- the
- ever-accelerating
- pace
- of
- technological
- innovation,
- political
- disruption,
- personal
- loss,
- and
- racial
- strife.
- These
- poems
- take
- on
- fundamental
- subjects—like
- the
- nature
- of
- time
- and
- consciousness
- and
- how
- or
- why
- we
- become
- who
- we
- are—but
- Shapiro
- presses
- them
- into
- becoming
- urgent
- and
- timely.Employing
- idiomatic
- range
- and
- formal
- variety,
- Shapiro’s
- poems
- move
- through
- recurring
- dreams,
- the
- coercions
- of
- childhood,
- and
- the
- mysterious
- connections
- of
- mind
- and
- matter,
- pleasure
- and
- memory.
- They
- meet
- an
- abiding
- need
- to
- find
- empathy
- and
- understanding
- in
- even
- the
- most
- challenging
- places—amid
- disaffection,
- public
- discord,
- and
- estrangement.
- His
- grasp
- of
- contemporary
- life—in
- all
- its
- insidious
- violence
- and
- beauty—is
- distinct,
- comprehensive,
- and profound.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
