Hungry Ghost - Bruce Smith

nAll of the poems [in Hungry Ghosts] have Smith bearing witness to a time of moral, intellectual, and ethical crises, which, I'm sorry to say is OUR time. But unlike other political poetry-a kind of talk poetry where poets state their outrage with randomly right-justified line breaks-Smith's poems are as stylistically challenging as they are disturbing.n nn n-Peter Johnson, Old Man Still Howling at the Moon (Substack)n nn nThe work is not trying to dictate something. It is not trying to describe something. It is not trying to articulate a particular history. It is about inventing and developing the language of painting and evolving that in this moment. So says Egyptian American artist Julie Mehretu about her work started after the 2016 presidential election. Hungry Ghost looks for a language that speaks to the moment that feels both historical and personal.n nn nHe is, and for a long time has been, one of our finest poets. n nn n-Agha Shahid Alin nn nn nLike no other modern American poet, he captures into language a flavor like that of jazz. n n-Denis Johnsonn nn nBruce Smith's passionate attention to substance - things, people, events, places - is what forms thestructures of his poems, which are formal in the truest sense. They are made in a master'sunselfconscious knowledge of craft for the purpose of saying what is important. They are neither new nor old, but themselves, and they affect me deeply. n nn n- Hayden Carruthn