Kirjahaku

From the country scenes of the poet's childhood to missives penned in the classroom where he served for many years, the poems in Larry Beckett's debut collection, At Some Time in My Life, sing with pride and prophecy. Whether fondly remembering his grandmother's Sunday table; addressing his former teaching colleagues; or decrying the atrocities of slavery and systemic racial injustice with the repeated declaration, "Call me by my name!," Beckett honors the struggles of his ancestors and calls upon the next generation of Americans to hold fast to the dream of liberty and justice for all. In verse that recalls Walt Whitman's optimism and Langston Hughes's musicality and keen political critique, Beckett reminds his readers once and for all that hope is the ultimate "builder / of the ruins left behind."

Ten long poems that try to do for America what Shakespeare did for England: turn history and legend into poetry.American Cycle, a sequence of long poems inspired by our folklore and past, was written over forty-seven years. Its themes are love, local mythology, history, justice, memory, accomplishment, time. "The books are extraordinary, sustained explosions of authentic American language and energy. Each is entirely different from the others in style, voice, form and narrative content; each so rich in imagery and nuance and texture and event and so finely crafted. . . " —Paul Williams, author of Bob Dylan: Performing Artist. Its styles are connected to our speech: Spanish words loaned from Old California, rough colloquialisms in Paul Bunyan, the power of African-American vernacular English in John Henry, bare oratory in Chief Joseph, old west phrases in Wyatt Earp, circus ballyhoo in P. T. Barnum, aviation jargon in Amelia Earhart, backwoods dialect in Blue Ridge. As Walt Whitman says, "I hear America singing, the varied carols. . .”

Ten long poems that try to do for America what Shakespeare did for England: turn history and legend into poetry.American Cycle, a sequence of long poems inspired by our folklore and past, was written over forty-seven years. Its themes are love, local mythology, history, justice, memory, accomplishment, time. "The books are extraordinary, sustained explosions of authentic American language and energy. Each is entirely different from the others in style, voice, form and narrative content; each so rich in imagery and nuance and texture and event and so finely crafted. . . " —Paul Williams, author of Bob Dylan: Performing Artist. Its styles are connected to our speech: Spanish words loaned from Old California, rough colloquialisms in Paul Bunyan, the power of African-American vernacular English in John Henry, bare oratory in Chief Joseph, old west phrases in Wyatt Earp, circus ballyhoo in P. T. Barnum, aviation jargon in Amelia Earhart, backwoods dialect in Blue Ridge. As Walt Whitman says, "I hear America singing, the varied carols. . .”