Who's on First?

“A triumph of a collection. . . . [selected poems] . . . thrilling new work . . . bring the light to the space between what we sense and what we understand.” —Nina MacLaughlin, The Boston Globe

For over four decades, readers and critics have found Lloyd Schwartz’s poems a rare combination of the heartbreaking and the hilarious. With his ear for the poetry of the vernacular, Schwartz offers us a memorable cast of characters—both real and imagined, foolish and oracular. Readers experience his mother’s piercing flashes of memory, the perverse comic wisdom of Gracie Allen, the uninhibited yet loving exhibitionists of antique pornography, and eager travelers crossing America in a club-car or waiting in a Brazilian airport. Schwartz listens to these people without judging—understanding that they are all trying to live their lives with tenderness, humor, and grace.

Who’s on First? brings together a selection of poems from all of Schwartz’s previous collections along with eagerly awaited new poems, highlighting his formal inventiveness in untangling the yarn of comedy and pathos. Underlying all of these poems is the question of what it takes and what it costs to make art.

“To read Schwartz’s poems is to . . . become eavesdroppers and voyeurs of the whole human parade—desperate intimacies of parents and children, lovers, friends. . . . to see into the heart of things.” —Rosanna Warren, author of So Forth

“Schwartz is great company, humane, considerate, and incredibly moving.” —Alan Shapiro, author of Against Translation

“Full of linguistic play, autobiography, and a philosophical and satirical urgency in addressing family and romantic relationships.” —Booklist

“Schwartz is, by any measure, a potent force in American letters.” —Arrowsmith Journal

“You will never forget the best poems in this book.” —Frank Bidart, author of Half-Light