Jersey Rain

Impassioned Personal Poems From America''s Poet Laureate. It spends itself regardless into the ocean.It stains and scours and makes things dark or bright: Sweat of the moon a shroud of benedictionThe chilly liquefaction of day to night. The Jersey rain my rain soaks all as one:It smites Metuchen Rahway Saddle RiverFair Haven Newark Little Silver Bayonne.I feel it churning even in fair weather. To craze distinction dry the same as wet.--from Jersey Rain. Jersey Rain--at once masterly and intimate--marks a fresh lyrical stage of Robert Pinsky''s work. Poems like Samurai Song ABC Ode to Meaning To Television and The Green Piano have already attracted a wide readership. Now assembled in this book they become part of a larger fugue-like meditation on the themes of a life guided by Hermes: deity of music and deception escort of the dead inventor of instruments the brilliant messenger and trickster of heaven.