Winter Dance Party

Rather than tracing a whole life, this collection follows one writer's life in poetry. David Kirby, a finalist for the National Book Award, gathers a career's worth of work here, mostly recent poems mixed with a generous selection of earlier ones.

The book is arranged in nine sections, and the order owes little to the calendar. Its movement resembles the chapters of a dreamlike memoir. Long pieces give way to brief ones, playful experiments sit beside conventional verse, and plainspoken lines appear close to more indirect, allusive work.