Sleeping and Waking

Albert Goldbarth's new collection is a community of poems that makes room for other voices than the autobiographical "I": some fantastical, some historical/celebrity, some the neighbours down the block.

The poems themselves offer a rich spectrum of possibilities, from the comic to the grievous, from a poem of five lines to a poem of six pages, but all presented by a poet whose broad understanding of history and of a wide range of character types allows him to people his writing with everyone from presidents to prostitutes, and from ancient mythmakers to contemporary celebrities - all the while remaining present as a smart and earnest voice.