Writers Writing Dying

Since his first poetry collection Lies C. K. Williams has nurtured an incomparable reputation―as a deeply moral poet a writer of profound emotion and a teller of compelling stories. In Writers Writing Dying he retains the essential parts of his poetic identity―his candor the drama of his verses the social conscience of his themes―while slyly reinventing himself re-casting his voice and in many poems examining the personal―sexual desire the hubris of youth the looming specter of death―more bluntly and bravely than ever. . In Prose he confronts his nineteen year-old self who despairs of writing poetry with the question How could anyone know this little? In a poem of meditation The Day Continues Lovely he radically expands the scale of his attention: Meanwhile cosmos roars on with so many voices we can''t hear ourselves think. Galaxy on. Galaxy off. Universe on but another just behind this one . . . Even the poet''s own purpose is questioned; in Draft 23 he asks Between scribble and slash―are we trying to change the world by changing the words? . With this wildly vibrant collection―by turns funny moving and surprising―Williams proves once again that he has in Michael Hofmann''s words as much scope and truthfulness as any American poet since Lowell and Berryman.