Agenda Melt

A capacious tent of splendor in a gender veldt, Agenda Melt, Elmslie’s third book with visuals by Trevor Winkfield, juxtaposes new poems and theatre lyrics culled from his musicals: The Grass Harp, cult classic, and three works-in-progress-Lola, Night Emerald, and Lingo Land, a revue of his songs and poems in which he is slated to make his off-Broadway debut. His recent books include Cyberspace (Granary Books) and Snippets (Tibor de Nagy Editions), both with Winkfield artwork, Blast from the Past (Skanky Possum Press), Postcards on Parade, a musical play (Bamberger Books) and Routine Disruptions (Coffee House Press).

There’s a lot of heart in his poems-really these songs, because they come from a ranging mastery of everything from classical opera to old-time Country Western. Kenward Elmslie tells the insistent tales of our tribe with great humor and seemingly endless invention. -Robert Creeley.