The Thread: New and Selected Poems

In this powerful collection, Stephen Sandy gathers his most striking poems from five previous books written over thirty-five years and adds memorable new ones to present a brilliant retrospective on his career to date. On a wide array of subjects, Sandy’s distinctive voice resonates as he proves himself to be a master of form, presentation, and passion.

Sandy has lived in some of the world’s great urban centers and captures in these poems essential vibrations of modern and postmodern life. “Are the rats little / Buddhas? Poisoned by the old / lady upstairs they still play.” He writes compellingly of Japan and of rural New England, and remembers a marine in Vietnam: “You lose the thread on which your life depends / And never hear the shot that rips you through.”

What emerges in this remarkably diverse compilation is an unforgettable take on American experience that rearranges reality in a singular but truthful and familiar way. We see ourselves through Sandy’s eyes with a fresh understanding. At once sensuous, philosophical, and enlightening, the poems in The Thread lead us to an unaccustomed vision of our lives, the beliefs and enigmas that inform them.