A Single Focus

by James Hearst

A Single Focus is the fourth book of James Hearst's poetry The Prairie Press has published. The first of these, published exactly thirty years ago, was a mature collection, free of the weaknesses often found in a poet's initial volume. Hearst has gone on from there with increasing sureness to a wider range and greater flexibility. A Single Focus is the largest collection of the four, and unquestionably contains much of his best work to date. James Hearst has developed in his poetry a form of statement that is restrained, precise, beautifully controlled and always uniquely his own. The warmth of his own nature is abundant in his own nature is abundant in his poetry, and even when the material is somber there is an underlying tenderness and kindliness. A delightful and subtle humor is an integral part of much of his work. Farm born and reared, nature and rural subjects are frequent in Hearst's poetry, but handled as revelation rather than description. Over the years his style has moved into a larger compass of form and structure, attaining greater freedom and scope with an increase, rather than a diminution, of craftsmanship. Whatever form Hearst gives his poems, he remains strictly his own man, enlarging and consolidating his already strong position in an area that is neither traditional nor avant-garde. For this is an increasingly larger number of readers and enthusiasts are very grateful. During the academic year Hearst teaches at Northern Iowa University and his summers are spent as poet in residence a the writers' workshop in Aspen, Colorado.

74 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1967