The Sound of Dreams
Remembered Like poets across the ages, Young
is grounded and experienced in the pride and prejudice of
his own times, and yet he can jump right over the moon and
straight at the sun. Whether sonnetizing love or loss,
laughing at smug social presumptions, condemning CIA drug
deals, the thriving prison industry, biotech food, greed in
a darkening stockocracy, or celebrating eternal verities, he
writes with spirit, imagination, and hope. "The pace of these poems is fast,
jazzy, propelling the reader along with supple, often
conversational rhythms, lively description and rushes of
feeling." -Library
Journal "Imbued with serious passions and
wonders, topical alertness, humor, and lushness of language
and mind, Al Young's poems are voracious for this world, in
all its possibilities and parts. His syncopated heart spills
out wisdom won by a hard and joyous attention: 'The
loveliness of poems is that they keep;/the loveliness of
lives is that they don't.' In the music, clarity, and
poignance of such perception, these poems are set down for
the keeping." -Jane
Hirshfield "Al Young's The Sound of Dreams
Remembered invites readers to travel the depth and breadth
of his bountiful imagination. There is a deep singing inside
of Al Young's poetry, with a hint of Ocean Springs beneath a
distilled signifying in the hands of a master code switcher.
This seasoned voice knows the music and folklore, the
history and lingo, and each poem, with an almost sacred
sincerity, takes us multiple directions in a single
breath." -Yusef
Komunyakaa Creative Arts Book Company Al Young The author of several books of
poetry, Al Young is also a novelist and essayist. He is the
recipient of NEA, Guggenheim, and Fulbright Fellowships as
well as the PEN/Library of Congress Award for Short Fiction
and the PEN/USA Award for Non-Fiction. He has taught at
Stanford, Rice, the University of Arkansas, UC Santa Cruz,
the University of Washington, and the University of
Michigan.
Poems
1990-2000
833 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 947101