Book

Kirby, David, 1944- author.

Help me, information : poems / David Kirby.

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2021]

©2021

ix, 119 pages ; 23 cm

Help Me, Information is propelled by the speed and motion of the poems that define earlier acclaimed books by David Kirby, poems which move the way the mind does on a good day, puddle-jumping from one topic to another and then coming in for a nice soft landing. The poem might bounce once or twice on the tarmac, but the pilot promised he would get you to the terminal safely, and he does. Colloquial in tone, balancing narrative breadth with masterfully precise details, Kirby's poems traverse subjects and emotions with great insight and skill. "Help Me, Information" reveals the amplitude of his imagination and mercurial voice reaching new heights in breadth of gesture, seriousness of subtext, and the resourcefulness of his comic instincts, as his poems display a voracious curiosity about history, science, literature, and popular culture. Yet here he also reinvents himself with poems that recall the directness of Jack Gilbert, the sweep of Allen Ginsberg, and the introspection of Frank O'Hara-- Provided by publisher.

American poetry -- 21st century.

Poetry.

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Ode -- Foreign Movies -- My Girlfriend Killed James Brown -- The 1909 Air Show at Brescia -- Then Elvis Drops to One Knee -- Racing through Pittsburgh with Annie Dillard -- Europeans Wrapping Knickknacks -- Ode to My Skinny Legs -- High School -- Sally Go 'Round the Roses -- The Locomotion -- Chasing Jim Taylor -- A Momentary Lapse in Judgment -- Hitchhike -- This Magic Moment -- To My Body -- A Baby in the Piazza -- Marie Antoinette -- Man Catches Baby -- Kissing -- With You I Am Myself -- Having a Chat with You -- I Wish I Were a Cannibal -- Pruno -- Good Seats -- One Good Turn -- More Soprano, Please, More Tenor -- The Woman in the Wall -- Legion, for We Are Many -- What the Parrot Said -- Three's Company -- Bernstein's Pizza Pagoda -- Don't Look -- The Bad Poetry Reading -- Lewis and Clark Can't Spell -- Unspoken -- The Whys.

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