Product Review

Poetry. "Stanley Kunitz once said, 'I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world.' For thirty-five years or more, this is how I have read the poetry of C. G. Hanzlicek. His project has always been one of clarity, of specific and imaginative attention to the world. He presents—with a flawless ear for the rhythms of American speech—the essential light and understanding he gleans from that careful attention. THE LIVES OF BIRDS takes up his important theme of mortality and at the same time reveals his great affection for life—the lives of his family, as well as the smaller examples of jays and mockers. The brilliance of this book, its importance, is that Hanzlicek's eye and imagination cherish the tenuous connection of all our lives with the sustaining music of the soul."—Christopher Buckley