Lateness

by David Shapiro

Cover drawing by David Hockney. Inscribed with violin score by author to Lita & Morson Hornick (Kulchur Press). minute nicks, otherwise Near Fine. coner crease on one page, otherwise Fine.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 1977

Reviews

[John Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Lateness" contains an ample amount of work by poet omnibus David Shapiro not included in his collected works (David Shapiro: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2006.) "Rivulet Near the Truth" is one of the most fun and by turns serious pieces I've encountered from DS: "Sopohcles had not written his Aeschyleia yet/like a sentence made up to include/the sleepers of the whole alphabet/all the tired out explanations/actuallly a hole in the ground/concealing a sniper with a sound/of spiders coasting on a rubber ocean/constantly infusing poison in the fly/with the kiss a mother reserves for/a violent child a silk of shiny metal..." This is time travel, folks, and also some of the most compact, gemlike imagery you'll find anywhere. I do wonder why some of these poems weren't placed in the aforementioned Collected Works, as they are gems in and of themselves, and when do we get a Complete Poems?

David Shapiro's poetry inhabits a different space than most poetry can imagine, and I've never seen a writer treat what is deadly serious with the innocence of wonder like Shapiro does. A necessity for lovers of poetry. The good and talented always outlast the privileged dross, as his work and persistence prove.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compact imagery and a singular voice in American poetry, this collection reads like a fever dream. Beautiful...

[Tenney Nathanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the great books, by a great poet. luminous, funny, dreamlike, witty, quicksilver. a complex, beautiful sense of shifting pacing and linguistic registers.