In this Book
- Like a Man Gone Mad: Poems in a New Century
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: Syracuse University Press
Hazo, National Book Award finalist and former State Poet of Pennsylvania, transports the reader with poems of both lament and celebration in his sensual new collection. Like a Man Gone Mad features much of the spare yet precise imagery of his earlier work. Searing portraits, a deft use of allegorical language, and a wry sense of humor are all signatures of Hazo’s unique voice.
Taking up the theme of time, the poems carry the reader back and forth through personal and historical time, offering glimpses of a wide range of figures, from Pascal and Heraclitus to John F. Kennedy and Clark Gable. From each vantage point, Hazo meditates on themes of vitality and longevity, legacy and oblivion, and the enduring folly of both the individual and society. Accessible and eminently readable, the poems in Like a Man Gone Mad embody a rich intellectual and emotional curiosity.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-iv
- Acknowledgments
- p. xiii
- To the Next Poem
- p. 1
- Once, Again
- p. 5
- Sudden or Slow but Sure
- pp. 6-7
- The Contrarians
- pp. 8-9
- “Are There Poets Any More?”
- pp. 10-11
- Aesop Revisited
- p. 12
- The Fifth Element
- pp. 13-14
- Making It Look Easy
- pp. 21-22
- The Short Life of Perpetuity
- pp. 23-24
- The Fools of God
- pp. 28-29
- The Merchandiser’s Song
- pp. 30-31
- Sloth Is the Mother of Invention
- pp. 32-33
- 3 The Way It Is
- p. 35
- Welcome to Used-to-Was
- pp. 38-39
- The King of Swing
- pp. 41-42
- Bring Back the Derby
- pp. 43-44
- Marrying My Shirt
- p. 45
- Off and Running
- p. 46
- Say Cheese
- p. 47
- 4 Louder in Silence
- p. 49
- Sleep Is a Dangerous Exile
- pp. 51-52
- Skull Teeth
- p. 53
- Bold Old Scold
- p. 54
- A World with Nobody in It
- pp. 55-56
- “Are You Sam Hazo’s Grandfather?”
- pp. 59-60
- 5 The Dreams of Love
- p. 65
- A Preferable Nudity
- p. 67
- The Time It Takes to Tell
- pp. 69-70
- Flagrante Delicto
- p. 71
- Ophelia’s Lie
- p. 74
- To Be Continued: A Parable
- pp. 77-78
- Sister Cigarette
- p. 82
- Sloth Is a Lost Art
- pp. 85-86
- No Words for This
- p. 89
- In the Fifth Year of the War
- pp. 90-91
- Riviera à la Carte
- p. 92
- Tell It to the Marines
- pp. 95-96
- Executioner
- p. 97
- 8 Between Two Shores
- p. 101
- Prior to Oblivion
- pp. 103-104
- In the Beginning Was the Breath
- pp. 107-108
- Ars Poetica
- p. 109
- Poseidon and Others
- pp. 110-111
- Home Are the Sailors
- p. 112