Twelve Poems with Preludes and Postludes

Poetry. "It was a joy to reread these powerful poems and your comments. It was like going to a poetry reading when the poet talks amply about the poems in between them, a custom I always like"--X.J. Kennedy. Joseph Langland was born in Minnesota in 1917, and has been a presence in American poetry for fifty years. He founded the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he lives. This selection of work constitutes a kind of autobiography, reaching through the work to its materials, with a kind of fondness and sadness, and an engaging small vanity.