{"product_id":"the-optimist-joshua-mehigan-9780821416112","title":"The Optimist","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn Joshua Mehigan's award-winning poetry, one encounters a lucid, resolute vision driven by an amazing facility with the metrical line. Most of the poems in \u003ci\u003eThe Optimist\u003c\/i\u003e unapologetically employ traditional poetic technique, and, in each of these, Mehigan stretches the fabric of living language over a framework of regular meter to produce a compelling sonic counterpoint.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Optimist\u003c\/i\u003e stares at contemporary darkness visible, a darkly lit tableau that erases the boundary between the world and the perceiving self. Whether narrative or lyric, dramatic or satirical, Mehigan's poems explore death, desire, and change with a mixture of reason and compassion.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn choosing \u003ci\u003eThe Optimist\u003c\/i\u003e for the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize, final judge James Cummins, wrote: \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"The world is given its due in these poems, but its due is the subjective voice making 'objective' reality into the reality of art. To do this Mehigan accesses a tradition of voices-the echoes in \u003ci\u003eThe Optimist\u003c\/i\u003e are, to name a few, of Frost, Robinson, Kees, and Justice; and more in terms of point of view, Bishop and Jarrell-to form with great integrity his own. It isn't that Mehigan is concerned more with what's outside himself than inside; nor merely that he travels the highway between the two with such humility and grace. It's also that these voices, this great tradition, infuses his line with what the best verse, metrical or free, must have: wonder.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Joshua Mehigan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0821416111\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780821416112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Ohio University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/10\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 61\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.47lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.34h x 6.20w x 0.45d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eUniv PR Books for Public Libry\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2005 pg. 73 - Recommended\/Special Interest","brand":"Joshua Mehigan","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43926522167551,"sku":"9780821416112","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_2f1900b7-f7f1-4fc8-bfe1-ca54f2035f76.jpg?v=1681083530","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-optimist-joshua-mehigan-9780821416112","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}