The Holy Surprise of Right Now

About

From his first book, through the National Book Award finalist Once for the Last Bandit, to his newest poems, Samuel Hazo’s themes have remained consistent. With each collection he wonders anew at the persistence of mortality in the midst of vibrant living and of love in all our relations. In his lithe, metrical lines, he writes with equal ease of Geneva, Switzerland, or Johnstown, Pennsylvania; of the matador Manolete in his dying moments or the innocent eyes of an eleven-year-old son; of the rewards of creating great art or the frustrations and joys of driving a Roosevelt Coupé. With The Holy Surprise of Right Now, Hazo gives his readers a powerful summation gathered from forty years of work.

Author

Samuel Hazo has published books of poetry, fiction, essays, and various works of translation, and has written two plays. His most recent books are the poetry collection The Past Won’t Stay Behind You; Stills, a novel; and an essay collection, The Rest Is Prose. Dr. Hazo is a professor at Duquesne University and director of the International Poetry Forum. In 1993 he was named first state poet of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Praise

“It is good to have this selected and new from Samuel Hazo, a prolific poet whose voice is always vigorously thoughtful and generous of heart. Among other things, one relishes his jauntiness, his ever-varied grammatical attack, and the wiry suppleness of his phrasing.”
—Richard Wilbur

“As head of the International Poetry Forum, Sam Hazo has introduced literally thousands of people to poetry, showing them how it can enrich their lives and o⁄er them comfort, encouragement, and joy. Now with the publication of his Selected and New Poems, he shows he is also a serious and accomplished poet himself. This book is full of learning, intelligence, and feeling. It is good to have so many of his poems together under the same two covers.”
—Linda Pastan

“Sam Hazo has perfect pitch, taking the experiences of everyday life and translating them into songs at once familiar and surprising. Each poem has a word or phrase or image that arrests you—sometimes knocking the wind out of you, sometimes causing a smile of recognition, but always making the thought behind the art immediate and as deeply felt as a dream.”
—Jane Alexander, Chairman National Endowment for the Arts