Drastic Dislocations

"Drastic Dislocations" is the title poem of the section of new poems in this Selected Poems by Barry Wallenstien, and this title is consistent with many of his concerns registered in the poetry he began writing in his teens. His first publications were in the old <i>Transatlantic Review</i> in 1964, but it wasn't until 1977 that BOA Editions published his first book of poems, <i>Beast is a Wolf with Brown Fire</i>. This new volume includes the author's choices from each of his six previous books, poems reflecting the socio-political life of the time as well as the perennial, transcendent themes of eros and thanatos. For the past 40 years this poet, who was also a professor of modern poetry at the City University of New York for that many years, has worked closely with jazz artists in the performance and recording of his work.