Go leaving strange

the long version

"This new collection from the celebrated poet Patrick Lane is filled with poems that explore the darker side of human consciousness and desire. A man kills his six-year-old child in "Weeds." An addict strives to keep ahead of death in "Smack." But amid this bleak landscape of pity and regret, there is also redemption and hope, life and beauty - in the wisteria seed that "shines between the folded legs of the pod, demure, waiting for spring ..." or in the "blue flare" of an "old blacksmith tempering iron in dust and fire."" "Go Leaving Strange marks a departure from the tightly wound lyrics of Lane's recent books and a return to the loose rhythms, long lines and Whitmanesque expansiveness of his earlier work."--BOOK JACKET.