The Dangerous Corner, Poems by Richard Moore
The
mournful poems of Richard Moore's The Dangerous Corner bring a distinguished
poetic career full circle. In the winter of his life, Moore's haunting, elegant
music affirms the deepest truths of our experience.
The deep cold comes, and even the great
pond is frozen, dusted with snow,
luminous under Venus, the moon,
suburban lights on the dark hills.
The cold wind has blown over and over
it, and now it is still, my mind,
frozen, determined, and still the wind
shrieks. Let there be no end of it.
"In recent times Richard Moore has acquired a high reputation as a poet of biting wit; in The Dangerous Corner he reminds us that he can sound the depths of emotion as well. Bravely drawing on personal catastrophes, he has woven individual poems into a major work: an immense and moving sonata. Mainly writing in contemporary forms, only occasionally rhyming for closure and emphasis, Moore still exhibits the qualities I admire him for: his candor, rare powers of observation, command of startling metaphor, and metrical mastery."-—X.J. Kennedy
Of Richard Moore’s thirteen published volumes of poetry, one was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He is also the author of a novel, The Investigator (Story Line Press, 1991), a collection of essays, The Rule That Liberates (University of South Dakota Press, 1994), and translations of Plautus’ Captivi (in the Johns Hopkins University Complete Roman Drama in Translation series, 1995) and Euripedes' Hippolytus (in the Penn Greek Drama Series, U. of Pennsylvania, 1998). Moore’s most recent poetry books include The Mouse Whole: An Epic (Negative Capability Press, 1996), Pygmies and Pyramids (Orchises Press, 1998), The Naked Scarecrow (Truman State University Press, New Odyssey Editions, 2000), Sailing to Oblivion (Light Quarterly Imprints, 2005), Buttoned Into History (Pivot Press, 2006) and The Split Moment (Scienter Press, 2006). Moore has taught at Boston University, Brandeis University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and Clark University. He has led the Agape poetry series in Boston and The Poetry Exchange in Cambridge, Mass. and Leesburg, Va. At present he is engaged full time in keeping his teeth and bones together and his eyes focusing.
ISBN 978-1933456836, 100 pages, $17.00