The Discipline: New and Selected Poems 1980-1992

by David Citino

In this remarkable collection from poet David Citino we can track the achievements of a stunningly original writer from the first steps to the mid-point of a significant career. Here, in a generous sampling of poems from all his previous collections (some out of print), along with a thirty-poem gathering of new work, we are invited to look back at past accomplishments, gaze around at the present lay of the land, and peer ahead to the vistas toward which an important American poet is moving. The field recurs as a dominant image throughout the volume, as a place where, as the poet suggests, "so many lovely things can happen, " and a place where we are most human. Indeed, it is Citino's vision of the connectedness of place - from the fields of Ohio to the hills of southern Italy, from the bleakly vacant urban lots of the present to the half-remembered, half-imagined far fields and meadows of the past - that shapes the collection, offering the reader the opportunity to visit a poet at various stages of his quest to explore and understand his past. At once sophisticated, lively, and relevant to the way we live our lives, The Discipline will move and enlighten readers, particularly those interested in understanding the process and progress, over time, of a creative mind, and those who find themselves wondering about the relevancy of poetry to the contemporary world.

Genres: Poetry

255 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1992