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Book cover
Title
Punks
New & Selected Poems
Author
John Keene
Format
Print

I heard John Keane interviewed about this book of poetry and ordered it right away. In the interview he read his remarkable poem Beatitudes which begins benignly:

Love Everything

And then proceeds to take this line seriously. It is a bold poem, and you will nod, scowl, and wonder.

Love the monster breeding inside you and slaughter him with love.
Love the shipwreck of your body, your mind’s salted garden.

Punks is large, powerful, and ambitious collection—the kind of book you can open to a random page, read, and be effected.