SO WHAT: Poems, by Frederick SeidelFrederick Seidel’s best poems balance on a razor’s edge between diagnosing what’s wrong and being in the wrong. But Seidel is among our best contemporary poets, and has continued writing, well into his ninth decade, handsomely and in parody of handsome writing. We need poets’ blessings, but Seidel’s work has never been the place to find them. Instead, he offers something else we also need: poems that won’t let us look away. To submit to a Seidel poem is to encounter constantly shifting attentions and visionary leaps, even if they don’t always stick the landing.

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Persons: Frederick Seidel Frederick Seidel’s, Seidel, won’t, Whitman, Lucille Clifton, Leonard Cohen Locations: “, America