The Almanac
Trade Paper – $18.95
ISBN 978-0-8101-2835-4The Almanac
While the poems in Steve Straight’'s new collection lead the reader "into the dark forest of memory / or onto the carnival ride of hypothesis, / or even right off the cliff of surprise," they maintain a sure course through the din and distraction of modern life. Bits of news from the natural sciences, chance encounters, and even convicted felon and crafting queen Martha Stewart all fall under Straight’s observant eye. The result is a collection of conversational poems that lend a sense of wonder to the commonplace.
“Steve Straight is a poet of everyday experience whose disarmingly casual voice can lead the reader into deeper waters of insight and modest epiphanies. Every one of the poems in The Almanac achieves that rare thing in the streets of contemporary poetry: they are just plain interesting.” —Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States
“‘…even the universe lives to breathe / and with that breath it wants to sing,’ writes Steve Straight in this new collection of poems that sing the universe so beautifully. These tender (and often very funny) meditations on the nature of nature, the fierceness and delicacy of love, and the consolations of language delighted me with their freshness and wisdom. To see the world through Steve Straight’s eyes is to see it anew. And isn’t this what we ask of the best poetry?” —George Bilgere, author of The White Museum
"The Almanac is truth-telling in the spirit of Emily Dickinson's 'Tell all the Truth but tell it slant,' a beautifully readable collection for nonpoets and poets alike. May it find most caring hands." —Dick Allen, author of Present Vanishing