American Music

the long version

"American Music, selected by C.D. Wright, is uniquely attuned to the feedback symphony of a modern city, the lyrical product of "an earnest rage born of the absurd." Chris Martin's poems encompass the things found in an urban environment: asphalt, subways, technology, strangers, the drudgery of work, the garbage trucks and open parks, fistfights and snapshots, fears and paranoia, loves and joys. Here is life hurtling forward without the time to reflect, in a city rife with opportunities." "Throughout American Music, readers will hear a chorus of voices. "One of the things that opened the world of American Music to me was plagiarism," Martin said in an interview. "In order to feel comfortable speaking from my own voice, I found it necessary to include the voices of others. I wanted, as Creeley said, to find company."--BOOK JACKET.