Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Boating on the Styx

Boating on the Styx

Van Valin, Joel

Paperback

General Poetry

ISBN10: 1639806482
ISBN13: 9781639806485
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Published: Sep 20 2024
Pages: 106
Weight: 0.37
Height: 0.25 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Joel Van Valin's love of classical literature is apparent in the very title of his first full-length collection, Boating on the Styx. The longtime editor and publisher of Whistling Shade, Van Valin wears his love of literature lightly, effortlessly moving back and forth in these poems of love and loss, family and grungy streets. The effect is to give the poems weight and perspective, as when the poet describes a bride: The white nets of her dress / flowing behind her / like Aphrodite risen / from the foam. In Van Valin's poems, the world is everywhere-babies, whiskey, polar fleece, chicken wings, and kisses, many kisses. And he knows things, for instance, that Hart Crane's father invented Life Savers. He is thoroughly in the world, but transcendence is never far away.

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