Richard Siken is an American poet, painter, and filmmaker whose work is characterized by intense emotion and powerful imagery. His poetry often explores themes of love, desire, and violence with an unflinching honesty. Through a compelling blend of lyricism and raw delivery, Siken crafts a unique literary voice that resonates with readers seeking deeply felt and formally daring verse.
In this long-awaited follow-up to Crush, Yale Series of Younger Poets prize-winner Richard Siken turns toward the problems of making and representation, in an unrelenting interrogation of our world of doublings. In this restless, swerving book simple questions—such as, Why paint a bird?—are immediately complicated by concerns of morality, human capacity, and the ways we look to art for meaning and purpose while participating in its—and our own—invention.
A powerful collection of poems driven by obsession reveals a poetry that is at once confessional, gay, savage, and charged with a violent eroticism. Simultaneous.