It has been seventeen years since Lloyd Schwartz has published a book of original poems, so there is much anticipation from his fans. In Little Kisses, Schwartz takes his characteristic tragi-comic view of life to some unexpected and sometimes disturbing places. Here we find heart-breaking and comic poems about personal loss (the mysterious disappearance of his oldest friend, for example, or his mothers failing memory, or a precious gold ring gone missing); uneasy love poems and poems about family; and poems about identity, travel, and artwith all their potentially recuperative powers. The book also contains some memorable translations, jokes, and wordplay, as well as formal surprises, all of which Schwartzs readers have come to relish in his verse. His books have been all too few and far between; this new one after so very long is sure to be greeted by an eager readership.
Called “the master of the poetic one-liner” by the New York Times, acclaimed poet and critic Lloyd Schwartz takes his characteristic tragicomic view of life to some unexpected and disturbing places in this, his fourth book of poetry. Here are poignant and comic poems about personal loss—the mysterious disappearance of his oldest friend, his mother’s failing memory, a precious gold ring gone missing—along with uneasy love poems and poems about family, identity, travel, and art with all of its potentially recuperative power. Humane, deeply moving, and curiously hopeful, these poems are distinguished by their unsentimental but heartbreaking tenderness, pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, formal surprises, and exuberant sense of humor.