Fall Higher

"Dean Young is a high-energy poet. . . . His vigorous, vibrant, fast-paced poems make startling connections."—Judges' citation, Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist

"Anyone with a heartbeat knows that Dean Young has become a crucial nucleotide in the DNA of American poetry."—Tony Hoagland

"The language, the invention, the imagination, and the sheer fun of his poems are astounding."—Charles Simic

Dean Young surmounts the failures of love and the body with his signature humor, verbal banter, and wild imaginative leaps. Embracing the elegiac, angry, and amorous with surrealistic wordplay and off-kilter music, Young coaxes us to "fall higher" into an intimate, vulnerable, expansive exchange. This is a major new book by one of America's most inventive poets.

I was satisfied with haiku until I met you,
jar of octopus, cuckoo's cry, 5-7-5,
but now I want a Russian novel,
a 50 page description of you sleeping,
another 75 of what you think staring out
a window. I don't care about the plot
although I suppose there will have to be one,
the usual separation of the lovers, turbulent
seas, danger of de-commission in spite
of constant war, time in gulps and glitches
passing, squibs of threnody, a fallen nest,
speckled eggs somehow uncrushed, the sled
out-racing the wolves on the steppes, the huge
glittering ball where all that matters
is a kiss at the end of a dark hall . . .

Dean Young has published ten books of poetry, including finalists for the Pulitzer and Griffin Poetry Prizes. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin.