Back Chamber

the long version

"The first full-length volume of poems in a decade by former poet laureate of the United States Donald Hall. In The Back Chamber, Donald Hall illuminates the evocative, iconic objects of deep memory--"a cowbell," "a white stone perfectly round," "a three-legged milking stool"--that serve to foreground the rich meditations on time and mortality that run through his remarkable new collection. While Hall's devoted readers will recognize many of his long-standing preoccupations--baseball, the family farm, love, sex, and friendship--what will strike them as new is the fierce, pitiless poignancy he reveals as his own life's end comes into view. The Back Chamber is far from being death-haunted but rather is lively, irreverent, sexy, hilarious, ironic, and sly--full of the life-affirming energy that has made Donald Hall one of America's most popular and enduring poets"--