The back chamber
(Book)

The first full-length volume of poems in a decade by the former poet laureate of the United States. He illuminates the evocative, iconic objects of deep memory -- "a cowbell," "a white stone perfectly round," "a three-legged milking stool" -- that serve to foreground the rich meditations on time and mortality that run through his remarkable new collection. While Hall's devoted readers will recognize many of his long-standing preoccupations -- baseball, the family farm, love, sex, and friendship -- what will strike them as new is the fierce, pitiless poignancy he reveals as his own life's end comes into view.