"Linda Pastan is one of America's truly fine poets working at the height of her powers." — Michael Collier, Baltimore Sun

This volume brings together new work along with poems gathered from nine previous collections. When Linda Pastan's first book was published in 1971, the Jerusalem Post wrote, she "in large measure fulfilled Emerson's dream — the revelation of ‘the miraculous in the common.' " Since then Pastan has continued to explore the complexities, passion, and dangers under the surfaces of ordinary life.

"Some critics point to Emily Dickinson when citing Pastan's lapidary style and metaphysical wit, a comparison that does justice to either poet when Pastan is at her best." — Gettysburg Review

• "Pastan's unfailing mastery of her medium holds the darkness firmly in check." — New York Times Book Review
• National Book Award finalist
• Linda Pastan was Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1991 to 1993.

Linda Pastan lives in Potomac, Maryland.

Reflecting on her long and celebrated career in poetry, two-time National Book Award finalist Linda Pastan was struck by the number of dogs that have appeared in her poems-whether as the primary subject or in the briefest of allusions. Dogs run through these poems, so to speak. The poems span the lighthearted to the serious, from the antics of training a recalcitrant dog to the grief at a beloved dog's death. With warmth, dignity, and quiet power, Pastan explores the many roles of these devoted animals, from household pet to Argos, Pluto, and the Dog Star. "Envoi" We're signing up for heartbreak, We know one day we'll rue it. But oh the way our life lights up The years a dog runs through it.

"Plume magazine, and now the second volume of its Plume Anthology of Poetry, is a beautifully edited and stylishly presented cross-section of what is alive and well in contemporary poetry." Diane Wakoski

"[Linda Pastan's] poems are skillfully written with lovely syntax and strong, evocative imagery. Surprising readers with subject and an occasional rhyme, Pastan proves once again that, 12 books later, she is a poet who can ground us, who can astound us. Essential reading for poetry lovers."-Library Journal

In her work there is a return to the role of the poet as it served the human race for centuries: to fuel our thinking, show us our world in new ways, and to get us to feel more intensely. The rightness of this summary of Linda Pastan s poetic career in the San Francisco Review of Books will be immediately clear to readers of her new volume, PM/AM."

As the San Francisco Review of Books has written: In Pastan s world, a poem is not just anything; it is more than some inspired words strung together casually. She earns each poem, line by line, insight by insight, felt emotion by felt emotion. She reminds us of the origin of the word poet: maker . . . . Pastan can be read by anyone and enjoyed. And she deserves to be. More important, people who read books on the latest political, economic, sociological, and psychological concerns should put Pastan on their list. So should people who read novels. In her work there is a return to the role of the poet as it served the human race for centuries: to fuel our thinking, show us our world in new ways, and to get us to feel more intensely. "

These poems chart the journeys of sleepless nights when whole lifetimes seem to pass with their stories: loves lost and gained; children and seasons in their phases; and the world beyond, both threatening and enriching life. The time before sleep acts as an invitation to reflect on the world's quieter movements-from gardens heavy after a first storm to the moon slipping into darkness in an eclipse-as well as on the subtle but relentless passage of time. Insomnia embodies Linda Pastan's graceful and iconic voice, both lucid and haunting.

Linda Pastan writes, "the art that mattered / was the life led fully / stanza by swollen stanza." That life is portrayed here, from the poet's earliest childhood memories to the surprises that come with age.

This remarkable new collection of poems is a sure affirmation of the fact that, as one critic has written, Linda Pastan "has quietly become one of our leading poets." Another critic noted, of her first volume, that she "in large measure fulfilled Emerson's dream-the revelation of 'the miraculous in the common.'"

"Autumnal and subdued...movingly chronicles loss, fear, the passing of time."—Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

In The Last Uncle, Linda Pastan writes, "If death is everywhere we look, / at least let's marry it to beauty." The poems in this new collection deal with loss and the difficult transition between generations, but they are also about love and landscape and the many pleasures of the imagination.

"Pastan's unfailing mastery of her medium holds the darkness firmly in check."—New York Times Book Review

"The world wounds us / with its beauty, as if it knew / we had to leave it soon," Linda Pastan writes in "In a Northern Country," and the poems in this new volume are full of those wounds, that beauty. Whether her subject is the return of childhood ghosts or the metaphor of baseball, whether it is the impact of landscape or the vagaries of family love, Pastan continues to explore and illuminate the mysteries and dangers beneath the common surfaces of ordinary life. As the Jerusalem Post put it, "She has, in large measure, fulfilled Emerson's dream—the revelation of 'the miraculous in the common.'" Or, as she herself writes in one of her new poems, "Long after Eden, the imagination flourishes with all its unruly weeds."

In her eighth collection, Linda Pastan touches upon themes of family, childhood, time and loss, and the beauty of nature. "Let the eye enlarge with all it beholds," she says in the opening poem; she becomes a seer, as the San Francisco Review of Books has said, returning to the role of the poet as it served the human race for centuries: to fuel our thinking, show us our world in new ways, and to get us to feel more intensely. "

Imperfect Paradise, published in 1988, is Linda Pastan's 4th collection and was a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Poems deal with birds, the past, children, beauty, rituals, myths, the moon, vacations, aging, death, family life, and hope.

"It is above all her integrity that has made Linda Pastan such a rewarding poet. Nothing is here for effect. There is no self-pity, but in this new book she has reached down to a deeper layer and is letting the darkness in." May Sarton"

Linda Pastan writes, "the art that mattered / was the life led fully / stanza by swollen stanza." That life is portrayed here, from memories of the poet's earliest childhood and the ambiguities of marriage and love to the surprises that come with age, always with a consciousness of what is happening in the larger world.

This volume brings together new work along with poems gathered from nine previous collections. When Linda Pastan's first book was published in 1971, the Jerusalem Post wrote, she "in large measure fulfilled Emerson's dream -- the revelation of 'the miraculous in the common.'" Since then, Pastan has continued to explore the complexities, passion, and dangers under the surfaces of ordinary life. She speaks in the voices of Penelope and Eve; of daughter, mother, and wife. The new book follows work that over thirty years both darkens and deepens with time.

"Pastan's unfailing mastery of her medium holds the darkness firmly in check."—New York Times Book Review

In The Last Uncle, Linda Pastan writes, "If death is everywhere we look, / at least let's marry it to beauty." The poems in this new collection deal with loss and the difficult transition between generations, but they are also about love and landscape and the many pleasures of the imagination.