Ovid at Fifteen

Poetry. Winner of the 2002 Green Rose Prize. Christopher Bursk's latest collection, OVID AT FIFTEEN, is not just profoundly honest; it is profoundly brave. These astonishing poems explore the space between sensuality, sexuality, and love-a landscape in which flawed human beings give birth to the flawed human beings who will one day take care of them, each generation screwing up even as it adds to the universal fund of beauty and compassion. Above all, OVID AT FIFTEEN reminds us what it means to feel the wonder of life too keenly-to "want to throw yourself/ off the cliff, plunge/ into the very heart of color."