Swallowing the Soap

New and Selected Poems

William Kloefkorn author Ted Genoways editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Nebraska Press

Published:1st Oct '10

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Swallowing the Soap cover

A collection of selected poems from Nebraska poet laureate William Kloefkorn

This volume, the first to span the forty-year career of poet William Kloefkorn, brings together the best-known and most beloved poems by one of the most important Midwestern poets of the last half century. Collecting work from limited editions and hard-to-find books, along with Kloefkorn's most anthologized poems, this is an indispensable one-volume compendium of the work of a major American poet.This volume, the first to span the forty-year career of Nebraska state poet William Kloefkorn, brings together the best-known and most beloved poems by one of the most important Midwestern poets of the last half century. Collecting work from limited editions and hard-to-find books, along with Kloefkorn’s most anthologized poems, Swallowing the Soap is an indispensable one-volume compendium of the work of a major American poet. “These poems aim for nothing less than the impossible: to understand what it means to be alive and human on this moveable earth,” writes the editor, Ted Genoways. Swallowing the Soap is filled with the panoramic landscapes of Kansas and Nebraska, the stories of the rough and tender people who live there, and the moments of heartache, brutality, loss, and redeeming joy that shape their lives. It offers a vision, at once intimate and expansive, of the world of the Great Plains as seen by one of its most eloquent poets.

"There is always the rock; there is always Kloefkorn: generous, honest, ornery, clear-eyed. I invite you to read this very significant book, No. 2 pencil in hand, and mark your favorites."—Marge Saiser, Lincoln Journal Star
"Kloefkorn's ear for the midwestern rural vernacular is pitch-perfect, and his lines of dialogue and bits of country speech are alternately hilarious and deeply poignant."—Michael Sowder, Western American Literature

  • Winner of Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award (Poetry) 2011

ISBN: 9780803234055

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

464 pages