The Hierarchy of The Pavilions

“This new volume by Ben Mazer ... is mostly new work and shows the poet continuing on his ineluctable journey of contemplation and self-realization. The poems boast the visual and musical complexity that Mazer is known for. They are often visionary and always filled with dense meaning. Many of the poems are complex, yet not forbiddingly so, even if they presuppose an ambitious and dedicated reader.” —Philip Nikolayev, from the afterword“American poetry used to bow before its roots in England, then pretty much scorned them utterly. Ben Mazer is a bright exception in a slowly dimming landscape, one who brings poetry’s formal pasts—both ancient and Modern— to bear on the dark troubles of the moment, while his spectrum extends from high lyric to caustic colloquial. His work is both distinct and distinguished, and his fine new book a cause for celebration.” —Glyn Maxwell