Old War: Poems

by Alan Shapiro

From a winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, a new collection that explores the vagaries of love and the place of beauty in a time of war.

In October 2002, at the age of fifty, Alan Shapiro collapsed while playing basketball. A few months later, on the eve of America’s invasion of Iraq, he remarried. The beginning of this happy chapter of his life coincided with a keen reminder of his own mortality and the menacing nature of the times we live in. The poems in Old War, Shapiro’s ninth and most innovative collection, were written under the double aspect of love and fear, of hope that comes with any fresh start and the sense that history will eventually undo or destroy whatever we struggle to make. Through an impressive variety of forms and styles, from first-person lyrics to dramatic monologues spoken by characters ranging from a country and western singer to a Jewish comic doing standup in heaven, they cast brilliant light on the nature of art, love, and family in a world defined by brutality, deception, and instability.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2008

About the author

Alan Shapiro (born 1952) is an American poet and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of nine poetry books, including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, and The Dead Alive and Busy.

In addition to poetry, Alan Shapiro has also published two personal memoirs, Vigil and The Last Happy Occasion.
(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Timothy Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite book of 2008, and dare I say, Alan Shapiro has become my favorite poet.

[Luke]

This book was enjoyable. I picked it up meaning to only read a few poems and got sucked in. Some of the highlights: "Egg Rolls," "Brother," "Open-Mike Night in Heaven," "Luck," and "Country-Western Singer."

[Phyllis Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous!