Some Assembly Required: Poems

After four dazzling books, George Bradley is one of the best kept secrets in contemporary American poetry. A writer whose subjects range from science and philosophy to Renaissance art and everyday life, he writes beautiful, funny, and extremely smart poetry. Try "How I Got in the Business" for a hilarious narrative that parallels the poetry biz with raising and producing olive oil for a mafia family. This poem is the author's second Georgic (his first was "A Georgic for Doug Crane," which told in equally funny detail how to raise, press, and bottle grapes). In both, the laughter gives way to reflection, and ultimately, beauty by the end. It's Bradley's signature gesture--the sudden turn from irreverence to lyric grace. Here, he pulls the trick off again and again: in shorter poems, like "A Poet in the Kitchen" and "My Poem Meets Tamerlane," as well as in the gorgeous sonnet sequence on the turn of the seasons, "A Year in New England."

Just wait until you read George Bradley. He's standing on the shoulders of Webster's Unabridged. He picks great words and then darn if he doesn't know how to put them together. If you've got your heart set on reading poetry that will give you chill-bumps, this book is the one to buy.