Longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award Gathered here is a half centurys magnificent work by the former poet laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner whose haunting and exemplary style has influenced an entire generation of American poets. Beginning with the limitededition volume Sleeping with One Eye Open published in 1964 Mark Strand was hailed as a poet of piercing originality and elegance and in the ensuing decades he has not swerved from his vision of how a poem should be shaped and what it should deliver. As he entered the middle period of his career with volumes such as The Continuous Life 1990 Strand was already wellknown for his ability to capture the subtle music of consciousness and for creating painterly physical landscapes that could answer to the inner self And here the dark infinitive to feel Which would endure and have the earth be still And the starstrewn night pour down the mountains Into the hissing fields and silent towns. In his later work from Blizzard of One 1998 which won the Pulitzer Prize through the sly provocative riddles of his recent Almost Invisible 2012 Strand has delighted in reminding us that there is no poet quite like him for a dose of dark wit that turns out to be deep wisdom and selfdeprecation. He has given voice to our collective imagination with a grandeur and comic honesty worthy of his great Knopf forebear Wallace Stevens. With this volume we celebrate his canonical work. show more