Wrestling Li Po for the Remote

In this fresh poetry collection, Kevin Stein tussles with the current American moment’s skewed notions of social and aesthetic value. His gallery of subjects is bracingly contemporary, including Gold Star Mothers who’ve lost a child to war, nightshift factory workers, estranged veterans, guitarist Les Paul, one couple’s yard sale romance, a dog’s Valentine poem, and even riffs on toilet paper, Herodotus, congressional discord, and league bowlers. To each, Stein brings both empathy and an astute eye for cultural foibles. He maps his poetic province from this welter, grappling with Li Po’s quest for lyrical detachment as well as the counter urge for communal engagement. These poems—formally inventive and refreshingly accessible, at turns darkly humorous and trippingly caustic—pull no punches. They pose fundamental questions of self and art in the modern era.