Sleeping and Waking

Albert Goldbarth's new collection is a community of poems that makes room for other voices than the autobiographical 'I': some fantastical, some historical/celebrity, some the neighbors down the block. The poems themselves offer a rich spectrum of possibilities, from the comic to the grievous, from a poem of five lines to a poem of six pages, but all presented by a poet whose broad understanding of history and of a wide range of character types allows him to people his writing with everyone from presidents to prostitutes, and from ancient mythmakers to contemporary celebrities--all the while remaining present as a smart and earnest voice." - Stephen Corey, editor of the Georgia Review