Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems

Essential for all readers of progressive American poetry, this collection encompasses the exhilaration and joy, the madness and sorrow of the last forty years with a lyric intensity that, in the words of the poet Robert Creeley, offers a “wry and securing truth.” A generous selection from the poet’s career, Light and Shade is a major release from one of the country’s most influential poets and critics.

Tom Clark has served as poetry editor of The Paris Review and as a poetry critic for the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. He has published numerous poetry collections and a number of critical biographies, including lives of baseball great Mark Fidrych and writers Jack Kerouac and Charles Olson. He lives in Berkeley and teaches at New College of California. Amy Gerstler is a literary critic whose own poetry has received a National Book Critics Circle Award.