Poems

This volume of Alvin Feinman’s poems presents a highly praised earlier work, Preambles and Other Poems, combined with more recent poems. Of Preambles Alan Tate wrote, "This is a remarkable first book. . . . there is an acute and subtle sensibility at work. ’Pilgrim Heights’ is one of the best poems by an American that I have seen in many years.’ ".

From "Pilgrim Heights"

Something, something, the heart here

Misses, something it knows it needs

Unable to bless--the wind passes;

A swifter shadow sweeps the reeds,

The heart a colder contrast brushes.

So this fool, face-forward, belly

Pressed among the rushes, plays out

His pulse to the dune’s long slant

Down from blue to bluer element,

The bold encompassing drink of air

And namelessness, a length compound

Of want and oneness the shore’s mumbling

Distantly tells--something a wing’s

Dry pivot stresses, carved

Through barrens of stillness and glare.

Originally published in 1990.

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