The Temple Gate Called Beautiful

the long version

“. . . it’s hard to realize that [<em>The Temple Gate Called Beautiful</em>] isn’t the comic monologue of a Renaissance-trained professor drenched in Monty Python reruns. But there is indeed a strong sense of form—long lines in carefully shaped stanzas—and the underlying rhythms evoke marvelous late-night conversations. Sure, one-sided ones, but with someone whose mind is so stuffed that every quip becomes a set of metaphors feeding into an Escher staircase that’s headed back to the opening of the poem in spite of racing away from it.” —Beth Kanell, <em>Kingdom Books</em> “David Kirby is the rare poet who juxtaposes humor and satire with a serious academic and classical knowledge without pandering exclusively to one or the other. It is a balancing act that is quite successful because it appears effortless . . . These mini-epic poems demonstrate a mastery of the turn of phrase, leading us onward toward Kirby’s inevitably laugh-filled punch lines, little bits of heaven left behind for us to contemplate in the here and now.” —<em>NewPages</em> “. . .a rarified world, one rendered through the eyes of a keen intelligence.” —<em>Library Journal</em>