One River (New and Selected Poems)

Selected from Ricardo Sternberg’ s four collections, along with astonishing new poems, One River is a major event. A poet who, according to one reviewer, “ has divined the secret connections between the words,” Sternberg's voice is unlike any other: witty, earthy, exuberant, inventive. His poems also forgo conventional subjects. Alchemists, mermaids, angels, and “ jongleur” grasshoppers share space with all manner of eccentrics: a trapeze artist, a pilot who navigates by smell, a millionaire who sneaks into heaven disguised as a camel. At the heart of Sternberg’ s practice is prestidigitation: the sleight of hand that inheres in effortless turns of phrase, brisk syntax, and bold forms. “ Leave it to me,” he says to his muse, “ to come up with something / that while not highfalutin, /carries a whiff of the sublime.” Charismatic and original, Sternberg’ s enduring work is captured in all of its extraordinary range in this new book.