Goodbye to the orchard

"Steven Cramer takes subjects that are familiar at first glance - we thought we knew all about "The Soul," a "Sixties Couple," a "Morning Walk in the Orchard," or how "Word Gets Around" - and makes them oddly affecting, weirdly fresh. Icons of high and popular culture appear in unpredictable ways (Shakespeare, Hendrix, Rin-Tin-Tin, the Marquis de Sade), so that as a whole Goodbye to the Orchard strikes an oringinal tone - a curious, undeluded sweetness." "Cramer employs agile structures in service of ambitious themes, his work by turns brave, disarmingly funny, and adroit at symmetrical form and free-verse syncopation. At the heart of the book we encounter a sister's fatal illness, and these poems tell us of our search, especially at such last moments, to find words for what can't, ultimately, be described."--BOOK JACKET.