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This collection of poems has been painstakingly assembled. It emerges as a work of unusual emotional and spiritual clarity and beauty. Timothy Dekin has fashioned a thoroughly contemporary style based on the pentameter line and the song forms of the English Renaissance poets. His formal mastery and control of lines are impeccable, and his wry wit and moments of penetrating awareness are unforgettable. The compelling immediacy of his confessional tone and his range of experience--from thoughts on mortality and self-worth, struggles with alcoholism, and failings of family love to a Buddhist-like oneness with nature--make for a striking combination. One moment Dekin confronts his unloving father and in the next speaks from a peaceful California setting where he is about to learn a lesson in the Zen of fly-fishing.
About the author
Timothy Dekin taught in writing programs at Loyola University, Northwestern University, and Stanford University. He was the recipient of several Illinois Arts Council grants, and his poems have been published in American Scholar, Southern Review, and Threepenny Review. He was the author of four chapbooks, Occasional Uncles, Winter Fruit, Carnival, and The Errand. He died in 2001.
Summary
After many years of honing his craft, Timothy Dekin fashioned a thoroughly contemporary style based on the pentameter line and the song forms of the English Renaissance poets. This collection of poems was painstakingly assembled a short time before the author's death.
