The Visible Man Poems

"To write what is human, not escapist," is Henri Cole's endeavor. InThe Visible Manhe pursues his aim by folding autobiography and memory into the thirty severe and fiercely truthful lyrics--poems presenting a constant tension between classical repose and the friction of life--that make up this exuberant book. This work, wrote Harold Bloom, "persuades me that Cole will be a central poet of his generation. The tradition of Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane is beautifully extended inThe Visible Man, particularly in the magnificent sequence 'Apollo.' Keats and Hart Crane are presences here, and Henri Cole invokes them with true aesthetic dignity, which is the mark of nearly every poem inThe Visible Man." Henri Colewas born in Fukuoka, Japan, and was raised in Virginia. The recipient of many awards, including the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Middle Earth, he is the author of six other books of poetry. Now back in print, this collection "is a breakthrough book in Cole's ongoing body of work . . . [It] is a triumph not only for the art but for the scathingly told tale of honest and unflinching realism" (Laim Rector,The Harvard Review). Cole, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalistMiddle Earth, folds autobiography and memory into the thirty severe and fiercely truthful lyrics--poems presenting a constant tension between classical repose and the friction of life. "These poems are marvels--unbuttoned, riveting, dramatic--burned into being."--Tina Barr,Boston Review "The Visible Man, Henri Cole's fourth book, is a breakthrough book in Cole's ongoing body of work . . . [It] is a triumph not only for the art but for the scathingly told tale of honest and unflinching realism itself. . .The Visible Manis very much an uprising."--Liam Rector,The Harvard Review "These poems are marvels--unbuttoned, riveting, dramatic--burned into being."--Tina Barr,Boston Review "The invention of a self so harrowing in character will remind readers of the confessions in Robert Lowell'sLife Studies. . . Most other books would be reduced to ashes by the comparison."--William Logan,The Washington Post Book World "The Visible Man, Henri Cole's fourth book, is a breakthrough book in Cole's ongoing body of work . . . [It] is a triumph not only for the art but for the scathingly told tale of honest and unflinching realism itself. . .The Visible Manis very much an uprising."--Liam Rector,The Harvard Review

Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and was raised in Virginia. The recipient of many awards, including the Kingsley Tufts Award for his most recent book, Middle Earth, he is the author of four other books of poems.