Jersey Rain

Cathartic refreshing new work by the American favoriteTiptoe on the globe. Gazingnowhere in particular the slenderThunderer surrounded by thunderFire zigzag in his grasp labeled SpiritOf Communication---unhistoricalPure the merciless messenger.--from A Phonebook Cover Hermes of the Nineteen-fortiesInnovative engaging poems from a leading American poet.Stone wheel that sharpens the blade that mows the grainWheel of the sunflower turning wheel that turnsThe spiral press that squeezes the oil expressedFrom shale or olives. Particles that turn mudOn the potter''s wheel that spins to form the vesselThat holds the oil that drips to cool the blade.--from BiographyJersey Rain takes up a central American subject: the emotional power of inventions devices and homemade imaginings -- from the alphabet and the lyre through the steel drum and piano to the record player digital computer and television. Formally innovative and highly readable poems like ABC Ode to Meaning To Television and The Green Piano meditate a life guided by the quick artful tinkerer-god Hermes: deity of music and deception escort of the dead inventor of instruments brilliant messenger and trickster of heaven.Tiptoe on the globe. Gazingnowhere in particular the slenderThunderer surrounded by thunderFire zigzag in his grasp labeled SpiritOf Communication---unhistoricalPure the merciless messenger.--from A Phonebook Cover Hermes of the Nineteen-fortiesJersey Rain -- at once complex and aboveboard -- marks a new strong lyrical stage of Robert Pinsky''s work. Assembled here are poems -- some of the finest of his career -- that together compose a sweeping and embattled meditation on the themes of a life guided by Hermes: deity of music and deception escort of the dead inventor of instruments brilliant messenger and trickster of heaven.