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"For James Richardson, poetry is serious and speculative play for both intellect and imagination... He] makes familiar scenes strange enough to provoke new and startling insights."--National Book Award Judges

"James Richardson is . . . a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision."--The Christian Science Monitor

" O]ne of America's most distinctive contemporary poets . . . a powerful and moving body of work that in its intimacy and philosophical naturalism is unique in contemporary American poetry."--Boston Review

"James Richardson's poetry is . . . unusual, quirky, personal, and profound."--The Threepenny Review

In this seriously playful new collection, James Richardson enters into underused and forgotten places in our emotional spectrum to revive lost feelings. His breathtaking skill with aphorisms open portals of new perspective to refresh us with their humor and make the familiar reinvigorated with the blessedly strange.

From "Big Scenes":

And what was King Kong ever going to do

with Fay Wray, or Jessica Lange,

but climb, climb, climb and get shot down?

No wonder Gulliver's amiably chatting

with that six-inch woman in his palm.

Desire's huge, there's really nowhere to put it

in this small world that it will stay put:

might as well just talk...

James Richardson is the author of eight books of poetry, including By the Numbers, which was a National Book Award finalist, and his poems appear regularly in The New Yorker. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University and lives in New Jersey.