News at Eleven: Much of the rage and grief

in this collection is directed at the current state of American politics and culture. Long a political poet--only in the United States does this diminishing label exist--[C.K.] Williams often bears fierce and damning witness to the pointless horrors in American and European history. Sometimes, however, anger gets the better of craft, as in the flat, cliche reportage in this stanza from "Vile Jelly":

from The Plain Dealer: C.K. Williams poems in 'Writers Writing Dying' are lighter and more despairing than earlier works

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