Circus Maximus - by David Starkey (Paperback)

About the Book

Tour the sites of Rome with David Starkey's garrulous new guide to the Italian Renaissance in fifty pocket-sized poems.

Book Synopsis

What would the Son-of-Man get up to in present-day Rome? Would he wander the Galleria Borghese, loiter outside nightclubs, ride trams, tip accordionists? How would Keats feel about the neon Dior sign that flashes away above the Spanish Steps? Are there ways to avoid Vespas on the sidewalks? Rules for carving a Pietà? And exactly which painter is responsible for the ugliest Jesus in the history of Western Art?

A tour of Rome like no other, the poems of Circus Maximus ask these questions and more. Join David Starkey as he shines a torch on the sights, sounds, mysteries and metaphors of the Eternal City.

David Starkey is the former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, a senior Fulbright scholar, and a six-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize. His latest volume of poetry is A Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel (Biblioasis, 2010).

Review Quotes

"In Circus Maximus, David Starkey wanders through contemporary Rome to be arrested time and again by the intensities of vision and faith of its Catholic art. We have here ... moments of the extraordinary hidden within the hurly-burly of the ephemeral everyday. And this he renders with great charm, alertness and silken intelligence."
--Irving Feldman

"In clean skillfully written stanzas, the poet shows us what he can do with language that is as precise as it is suggestive ... David Starkey is our knowing, reliable, astute guide--not just to the enduring metropolis that is Rome--but to the eternal city of imagination and art."
--Kurt Brown

"Spiritual yet visceral, aware of the isolation inherent in being human, Starkey reminds us we must live without closure. Yet in this complex collection, 'nothing ever really douses hope.'"
--Vivian Shipley

"Eloquent, evocative, richly detailed ... a rewarding, memorable read."
--David O'Meara

"In Circus Maximus, David Starkey wanders through contemporary Rome to be arrested time and again by the intensities of vision and faith of its Catholic art. We have here ... moments of the extraordinary hidden within the hurly-burly of the ephemeral everyday. And this he renders with great charm, alertness and silken intelligence."
--Irving Feldman

"In clean skillfully written stanzas, the poet shows us what he can do with language that is as precise as it is suggestive ... David Starkey is our knowing, reliable, astute guide--not just to the enduring metropolis that is Rome--but to the eternal city of imagination and art."
--Kurt Brown

"Spiritual yet visceral, aware of the isolation inherent in being human, Starkey reminds us we must live without closure. Yet in this complex collection, 'nothing ever really douses hope.'"
--Vivian Shipley

"Eloquent, evocative, richly detailed ... a rewarding, memorable read."
--David O'Meara

About the Author

David Starkey is the former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, California, and Director of the Creative Writing program at Santa Barbara City College. Among his poetry collections are Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002), and A Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel (Biblioasis, 2010). A senior Fulbright scholar and six-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, Starkey is also the author of Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief.