54 Poems: Selected & New

Author: John Levy

Publisher: Shearsman Books (2023)

The earliest poem in this collection of Selected & New work, "The Sleeper’s Blue Shirt," is from 1972. The most recent poems are from 2022. Ken Bolton edited this selection, drawing from five books and one chapbook.

“John Levy has a magical deftness that makes world upon world appear out of nowhere. He marvels at the most ordinary circumstances and things (waiting for a bus, wrong numbers, accordion straps, a hammer, the letter K) and when he does so, there is nothing else in the universe. The work is meticulous, precise yet always unlabored. The poems come from Paris, Kyoto, Greece, Tucson, Edinburgh (among other places), and the poet has worked as a public defender. Reading Levy’s wondrous poems, I say to myself again and again, “so this is how it’s done!” His book is like no other.”

—John Martone