Metaphysical Dog

"One of the great living masters of contemporary poetry, Frank Bidart is at the height of his powers in this extraordinary new book of short, midlength and long poems. With his trademark intensity, Bidart, once a friend and disciple of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, revisits his early work in searing new poems. Looking back on a long life, he recalls the pre-World War II music, movies and culture that has sustained his imagination for decades. When Bidart recalls his tortured coming out, the weight of his guilt and anguish is palpable — but so is his faith that art can make hardship not merely bearable, but almost unbearably beautiful."