Capacity - by James McMichael (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Capacity, the extraordinary new collection from the award-winning poet James McMichael, deliberates an earth that supplies what people need to live. Land, water, sky, food, shelter, thought, talk, sex--each is addressed at the pace of someone dense with wonder's resistance to take for granted even the smallest or most obvious parts of existence.

Capacity is a 2006 National Book Award Finalist for Poetry.

Review Quotes

"[McMichael's] strongest work . . . What makes him so unique in American poetry right now is the strength and subtlety with which he blends conceptual ambition with emotional power." --Peter Campion, The Yale Review

"McMichael is the 13-year cicada of poetry. With roughly the same regularity he surfaces, sheds his old skin and delivers a song that's entirely his own . . . Everything, from immigration patterns to heartsickness, is described in the same objective, almost clinical tone--a strange and wonderful choice, lending disproportionate power to the subtlest gestures." --Eric McHenry, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

James McMichael is the author of five books of poetry, including The World at Large: New and Selected Poems, 1971-1996. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, and the Shelley Memorial Prize.