The Inside of an Apple

"If you take a broad squint at our nation's new poets you can find two general strategies: poets who are carrying the torch, and poets who are using it to start fires. And then we have Joshua Beckman. He seems to be doing everything."--Daniel Handler,The Believer

"Beckman . . . does the incredible work of writing poems full of desire, for a world in the midst of radical upheaval."--Publishers Weekly (starred review forTake It)

Joshua Beckman is at his most immediate, attentive, and available inThe Inside of an Apple. Beckman's latest collection of sincere, spare poems invites the reader to experience a revelation of consciousness and a generosity of spirit.

Let my still dark soul
be music. A made whistle
floating out a window
arranged.

Some little thing

fell and I picked it up
and up it kept on going.

Eight dead stars

make a sickle,
and the earth
is covered in grass.

Joshua Beckman is the author of nine books, including collections of poetry, translations, and collaborations. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a NYFA fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Seattle and New York.