NONFICTION

Galaxy Love

by Gerald Stern
Norton. Apr. 2017. 96p. ISBN 9780393254914. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9780393254921. POETRY
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Prolific poet Stern, winner of such accolades as the National Book Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and the Robert Frost Medal, among others, sticks to form in this latest. Stern's speakers—mostly his celebratory, verbose, digressive self, in the Whitmanian tradition—look backward, as the eponymous poem clearly articulates in its opening lines: "There's too little time left to measure/ the space between us for that was/ long ago." The framing devices remain mostly in the past tense, as in "Dead Lamb" ("For some reason there was no more sea") and "Silence" ("I once planned a room for pure silence").
VERDICT Although this book quickly follows In Beauty Bright, which might leave readers wondering how fresh these poems feel, these ultimately thoughtful narrative recollections from and about the poet himself should do well in most general poetry collections. [See Prepub Alert, 10/24/16.]
Reviewed by Stephen Morrow, Hilliard, OH , Feb 15, 2017
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