The Goldfinch Caution Tapes

Winner of the 17th Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, awarded by judge Alice Fulton."D'Agostino's poetry is inexhaustible in the most seductive way, and I say that with confidence after rereadings that left me boggled, dazzled, smitten, amazed, wowed, charmed … Though I can't adequately express the book's dissonant beauty, I can say it was thrilling to discover poems packed with infinite resonance that are infinitely fun to read … Like the greatest lyric poetry, his poems … keep … exceeding their bounds and creating revelation. What a surprise. What a find. What a cool poet. What a feast."-- from Alice Fulton's foreword"This book is a heroic feat of observational meteorology, a rallying cry, and the now definitive handbook on Midwestern punk zazen. These poems move like David Byrne dances: they're jittery, funny, and deeply soulful all at the same time. They perfectly demonstrate the wild beauty and strangeness of our predicament. 'Just wait a minute and the bang / keeps getting bigger.' This book, too, resounds."-- Dobby Gibson, author of Little Glass Planet"I'm not suggesting that D'Agostino is a seer, though he may be; I'm just saying that his poems run roughshod over the rules of our language--and in so doing they slam us headlong into genuine discovery: Instead of the epiphany of recognition, D'Agostino's book offers experiences that couldn't exist outside of their language, which makes our encounter with them not a recognition but a revelation"-- Dan Rosenberg, author of Bassinet"Sui Generis: original, strange, exceptional, solitary."-- Mary Ruefle, author of DuncePoetry.