Quick, now, always

In this, his third book of poetry, Mark Irwin makes stunning jumps of imagination to create a poetry that is Rilkean in conception and execution, and that speaks to America at the end of the 20th century and to the issues of history, memory, language and consciousness. Irwin's vision is as broad as Whitman's and Hart Crane's, his language propelled by charged rhythms and a lush music. These poems address the American experience, from shopping at Woolworth's to traveling into the Grand Canyon, from the art of Robert Mapplethorpe to that of Andy Warhol, who "watched the working class work and it bored [him] to beauty." At the heart of the collection is the sweeping meditation, "Turbo-Descartes," that probes how our myths and machines effect our memories and desires.