PENETRALIA: Poems - Tapa blanda

A new book of poems after the release last year of his monumental collected poetry collection: The Essential Poems (1960-2015).
The world embraced by Eshleman's poetry is our world. As a contemporary writer, Eshleman's history is our own: his writing a record and reflection of our times. Eshleman's story — the story revealed in his poetry — is the story of mid-America meeting the wider world; the story of social and political radicalism, of a counterculture raising a voice in poetry and in art; of the challenges, frustrations and anomie that befell that counterculture and of the continued and indeed on-going drama of empire and overreaching power, from Vietnam and El Salvador to Afghanistan and Iraq. Eshleman's life in letters has exemplified a commitment to ceaseless, wide-ranging exploration and encounter: with other places, other people, other poetries — foreign and familiar —, other modes of thought and image. As he has written of his work: “I dream of poems that could change something essential / about the way a few people view creation...”

Clayton Eshleman has published roughly 100 books and chapbooks of original poetry, translations, and nonfiction writings, and edited seventy issues of magazines and journals, including the ground-breaking Caterpillar and Sulfur. His writings have appeared in over 500 literary magazines and journals around the world and his books and writings have been translated into a dozenlanguages.He has won most major literary awards over the years including the National Book Award. His translations of Vallejo and Cesaire are considered by many to be the standard bearers. His collected poetry edition: The Essential Poetry (1960-2015) was released last year upon his 80th birthday. It is undoubtedly unnecessary to observe that he made and has fulfilled a life commitment to poetry