Jersey Rain

Impassioned, Personal Poems From America's Poet Laureate&quote;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.&quote;--from &quote;Jersey Rain&quote;Jersey Rain--at once masterly and intimate--marks a fresh, lyrical stage of Robert Pinsky's work. Poems like &quote;Samurai Song,&quote; &quote;ABC,&quote; &quote;Ode to Meaning,&quote; &quote;To Television,&quote; and &quote;The Green Piano&quote; 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.