What Thoughts (Poems)

An intense, progressive book of poems from an influential new voice in American poetry. John Most is a genius of minimalist wordplay, a thoughtful, visionary poet. By dancing with abstraction, paradox, and clarity, Most willingly accepts the oft-hidden weaknesses of language, how language frequently fails to convey the physical world’s most dire philosophical and ecological problems. What Thoughts is a wonderful example of Most’s ability to imaginatively disassemble and observe the major conundrums of life in the twenty-first century. Proving his capacity to shift seamlessly between intricate ideas and concepts--from the perilous and uncertain to the emotional and unreal--Most painstakingly turns visions into words within a tight range of styles and approaches, from collage and conversational to fractured and lyrical. Sparsely populated by allusions to literature and a post-human future, his poems are haunted by the constantly moving edges of subjective experiences and present technologies. Most’s artfully constructed lines are a concrete manifestation of visions received during an era of pervasive uncertainties.