Contiguous States by Richard Levine

Richard Levine is a craftsman of the highest order, fully in control of his language, but with a touch so light that his lines seem to flow of their own will, … His extraordinary gift for powerful imagery and his uncanny sense of place allow him to transport the reader anywhere: … the rice paddies and dusty clearings of Vietnam; … American woods where the spiritually wounded veteran has long sought to regain his sense of serenity and purpose; the dying cities of once-industrial America;  … he transforms every situation … with an inexhaustible, fraternal concern for living things, … whether they are (injured) birds, the orphaned fawns of deer killed on highways, fellow veterans lost to drink and violence in the world to which they can never quite return, … smoky but ever-present ghosts of those who did not survive, the poor, the lonely, the voiceless. Levine’s detail-driven focus on the lives of others renders those lives real and riveting in the moment, and unforgettably important in the long run.

–Rhina Espaillat, Her Place in These Designs, Rehearsing Absence, 2001 Richard Wilbur Award

If one doesn’t find oneself tearing up at least once while reading Richard Levine’s Contiguous States, it seems—to me, at least—that one is lacking in humanity. There are poems of immense sadness and poems of immense beauty, poems that expose the soul of man for all to see. I find myself going back to reread poem after poem here—not because I need to be reminded of sadness or beauty, but because that which is deeply human must be held close, cherished.

 –Matthew J. Spireng, Author of What Focus Is and Out of Body

Review:

Complusive Readers.  

http://www.theliteraryreview.org/book-review/a-review-of-contiguous-states-by-richard-levine/

Richard Levine readings: