Birds of the Air

Like Robert Frost's North of Boston, David Yezzi's Birds of the Air intersperses charged lyrics with longer dramatic narratives. His monologues explore the frenetic pressures of urban life, as a number of memorable characters take stage: the guy who is hired to clear out a dying man's apartment; the actor stuck in an inadvertently hilarious production of Macbeth and his estranged girlfriend's tragic end; and the short-order cook who elevates his work to an art form. Like the birds of the air described by St. Matthew, these threadbare denizens of the modern city subsist on the few scraps that fall to them.

About the author

DAVID YEZZI'S books of poems include The Hidden Model (2003); Azores (2008), a Slate magazine best book of the year; and Birds of the Air, forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry (2006, 2012), The Paris Review Book, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Poetry Speaks Who I Am, Bright Wings, and elsewhere. He is editor of The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets (foreword by J. D. McClatchy) and executive editor of The New Criterion. He lives in New York City.

Product details

• Authors: David Yezzi
• Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 12.02.2013
• EAN: 9780887485718
• ISBN: 978-0-88748-571-8
• No. of pages: 90
• Dimensions: 136 mm x 216 mm x 7 mm
• Weight: 136 g
• Series: Carnegie Mellon Poetry; Carnegie Mellon Poetry
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies