William Greenway: Selected Poems

Winner of the 2014 FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize. William Greenway’s poems travel between muggy recollections of a Southern Baptist childhood, meditations on the otherworldly beauty of Wales, and commentary on life, death, and the revelry in between. For every witty turn of phrase, a punch beyond the punch line stuns us with wisdom and transcendence. A poem like Ophelia Writes Home, a witty revisionist account that shifts the slaughter of that famous tragedy to domestic bliss, exemplifies Greenway’s genius for reconciliation, for the grace of happiness no matter what happens. We smile, we grieve, and we keep reading these surehanded and goodhearted poems.