An ant to the stars
or stars to the ant--which is
more irrelevant?

Weekend Jet Skiers--
rude to call them idiots,
yes, but facts are facts.

Clamor of seabirds
as the sun falls--I look up
and ten years have passed."
--from "Dawn Notebook"

Such is the expansive terrain of "Seven Notebooks": the world as it is seen, known, imagined, and dreamed; our lives as they are felt, thought, desired, and lived. Written in forms that range from haiku to prose, and in a voice that veers from incanta-tory to deadpan, these seven poetic sequences offer diverse reflections on language and poetry, time and consciousness, civilization and art--to say nothing of bureaucrats, surfboards, and blue margaritas. Taken collectively, "Seven Notebooks" composes a season-by-season account of a year in the life of its narrator, from spring in Chicago to summer at the Jersey Shore to winter in Miami Beach. Not a novel in verse, not a poetic journal, but a lyric chronicle, this utterly unique book reclaims territory long abandoned by American poetry, a characteristic ambition of Campbell McGrath, one of the most honored, accessible, and humanistically engaged writers of our time.

Part fable, part diatribe, part elegy, part love song, this extraordinary fifth collection by Campbell McGrath makes poetry of the most unlikely of materials -- his home state of Florida. While at times poignantly personal, McGrath also returns for the first time to the characteristically comic and visionary public voice displayed in the renowned "Bob Hope Poem." Moving effortlessly from prehistory to the space age, he catalogues Florida's natural wonders and historical figureheads, from Ponce de León to Walt Disney, William Bartram to Chuck E. Cheese -- "the bewhiskered Mephistopheles of ring toss,/the diabolical vampire of our transcendent ideals." In the brilliant sociohistorical monologue of "The Florida Poem," McGrath employs the Fountain of Youth as a mythic symbol for both the tragic consequences of a society built on greed and cultural erasure and the diverse human potential, "which must become the fountain/for any communal future we might dare imagine."

Place-bound and tightly focused, Campbell McGrath's message is nonetheless universal, as his penetrating vision of Florida is also a vision of America -- its history and hopes, failings and fulfillments, and the eternal force that transcends it all.

Poems for the Twentieth Century

The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander.

From Brazil to Manitoba, Las Vegas to Miami Beach, 1999 MacArthur Fellow Campbell McGrath charts a poetics of place and everyday experience. Road Atlas is personal, provocative and accessible -- the finest work yet from "the most Swiftian poet of his generation" (David Biespiel, Hungry Mind Review).

"Capitalism and American Noise"introduced readers to the musical, comedic, and impassioned voice of poet Campbell McGrath. Now, in "Spring Comes to Chicago, " McGrath pushes deeper into the jungle of American culture, exposing and celebrating our native hungers and dreams. In the centerpiece of the book, "The Bob Hope Poem," McGrath confronts the paradoxes that energize and confound us--examining his own avid affection for "People" magazine and contemplating such diverse subjects as Wittgenstein, meat packers, money, and, of course, Bob Hope himself. Whether viewing this life with existential gravity or consumerist glee, McGarth creates poetry that is at once public and profoundly personal.

American Noise is a rapturous exploration of American culture and landscape. With compassionate wit and insight, Campbell McGrath transports us on a journey through contemporary society, transforming the commonplace into scenes of profound revelation. From late-night bars to early-morning diners, suburban malls to the Mojave Desert, McGrath's meticulously detailed vision defines singular moments of joy and melancholy.

From the MacArthur genius grant and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner Campbell McGrath, an electric new collection of poetry that asks us to love what lasts amid the detritus of American culture

After nearly a decade, In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys marks a return for Campbell McGrath to the poetic forms that brought him national acclaim--lyrical meditations on American art and society by turns satirical, tender, and haunted by the merciless work of time. In poems such as "Dick Cheney Speaks to Me in a Dream" and "Shopping for Pomegranates at Wal-Mart on New Year's Day," McGrath explores the intersection of the personal and the public realms of American culture like no other poet at work today. Whether he's documenting the decay and transformation of American cities, eulogizing Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, or rhapsodizing on the extramortal lifespan of books, McGrath writes poems of dazzling energy, intelligence, humor, and engagement. In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys is a collection of dreams, visions, jibes, essays, arguments, and love songs, each of them transformed into poetry by one of our most honored and entertaining poets.

Who finds this body
Be it known
My name is George Shannon
& I bequeath my remains
To seed this land
With American bones.

From the inimitable Campbell McGrath comes an epic poem of George Shannon, the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, who wandered the prairie alone for sixteen days. Spinning a tale of adventure and wonderment, McGrath gives voice to Shannon's lost weeks in the wilderness, a harrowing journey of survival and discovery.

With "Shannon," McGrath has created both a thrilling narrative that rises from the once vast, lonely spaces of the American west and a compelling portrait of that now ineradicably altered landscape--then unmapped, wild yet bounteous, teeming with buffalo and home to native peoples--that continues to haunt the American imagination.

"America's epic is the odyssey of appetite," Campbell McGrath declares, and these poems track those defining hungers across a social landscape by turns "grave, risible, amazing, banal," cataloging the "vortex of images in a ruined theater the culture comes to resemble," from Rocky and Bullwinkle to "Blue Angels rampant on a field of static, / anthem and flag descending to darkness." In terza rima meditations, rock-and-roll elegies, and abecedarian lyrics, "Pax Atomica" documents the tangled romance between self and society ("in which / the melody's ampersand ensnares us") in ways both new and familiar to readers of McGrath's five previous volumes. A continuation as well as a departure for one of America's most highly honored poets, this is poetry of formal eloquence and rhetorical power, of vision and engagement. "Pax Atomica"descends into the maelstrom of American culture and emerges singing.