Pax Atomica: Poems

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

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 Atomicadescends into the maelstrom of American culture and emerges singing.