But Not Yet

Winner of the 2016 Blue Lynx Prize

What is the emotional distance between what we treasure and what we discard? When we lose things, is it the thing lost we mourn, or is it loss itself? Ralph Burns sinuous and inventive poems ask these questions and answer them with a hardened wisdom and humor difficult to find in American poetry today. He writes as though he and the reader have known each other for a long time, so that all kinds of courtly explanation may be dispensed with. The book is a pure refreshment.