Jersey Rain

Impassioned, Personal Poems From America's Poet Laureate'It spends itself regardless into the ocean.It stains and scours and makes things dark or bright: Sweat of the moon, a shroud of benediction,The chilly liquefaction of day to night,The Jersey rain, my rain, soaks all as one:It smites Metuchen, Rahway, Saddle River,Fair Haven, Newark, Little Silver, Bayonne.I feel it churning even in fair weatherTo craze distinction, dry the same as wet.'--from 'Jersey Rain'Jersey Rain--at once masterly and intimate--marks a fresh, lyrical stage of Robert Pinsky's work. Poems like 'Samurai Song,' 'ABC,' 'Ode to Meaning,' 'To Television,' and 'The Green Piano' have already attracted a wide readership. Now, assembled in this book, they become part of a larger, fugue-like meditation on the themes of a life guided by Hermes: deity of music and deception, escort of the dead, inventor of instruments, the brilliant messenger and trickster of heaven.