The Lunatic in the Trees

Poetry. Dennis Sampson's THE LUNATIC IN THE TREES, does everything we could ask of a book of poems. It has its own peculiar bent, is unique in its preoccupations, is well crafted and, ultimately, refreshingly humane. Of Sampson's earlier work, Philip Levine has said, "In an era of…books of poetry largely about their own skill with language, it's more than a little breathtaking to encounter a poet who writes for the most basic reason: because he has to." As he has done in previous collections, Sampson continues to expand his vision doing justice to his subjects—from the inchworm and the ant to the mystery of the universe—as no other poet in America today.