The Case Against Happiness Book

“Jean-Paul Pecqueur is a poet who has, in truth, in actual landscapes and stunningly immediate circumstances, wrestled with an angel. And the fact that his very particu-lar, very contemporary angel wears the shape of a bird’s last breath and the elusive substance of human justice, troubles and delights me. These are poems of harrowing moment.”—Donald Revell Whether watching teens practice cheerleading in a surveillance video or discussing death with a shoe salesclerk, these poems ultimately find a certain joy and redemptive love. Wit and wry observation mark these disjointed narratives from an agile new voice. “Enthusiasms are to Researches as Day is to the Sublime” because they impose upon the desertscape an anti-honorific qua transitory hue because the stars are filled with entertainment news because throughout the news the people flow past the garden and alarm factories past the sparrows and Sibeliuses the motorcycles knife-fighting in the yard past the tree cosseted with mockingbird charms because the tree in question is the tree of life because the tree in question has grown out its hair the scent of orange blossom is everywhere    Read More