Ramshackle Ode - Paperback

by Keith Leonard (Author)

A sparkling debut collection from a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet that makes an ecstatic argument for living

Containing joy and suffering side by side, Ramshackle Ode offers elegies and odes as necessary partners to bring out the greatest power in each. By turns celebratory, meditative, tender, and rebellious, these poems reimagine the divisions and intersections of life and death, the human and the natural world, the brutal and the beautiful. Time and again, they choose hope.

From an award-winning young poet in the tradition of Marie Howe, Walt Whitman, Gerald Stern, and contemporary American bard Maurice Manning, Ramshackle Ode presents a new voice singing toward transcendence, offering the sense that, though this world is fragile, human existence is a wonderfully stubborn miracle of chance.

Back Jacket

Ramshackle Ode is a brilliant, heartbreaking, sometimes funny, always surprising celebration of love and attachment. Alan Shapiro "A sparkling debut collection from a Pushcart Prize nominated poet that makes an ecstatic argument for living" Embracing joy together with suffering, "Ramshackle Ode"offers elegies and odes as necessary partners to bring out the greatest power in each. By turns celebratory, meditative, tender, and rebellious, these poems reimagine the divisions and intersections of life and death, the human and the natural world, the brutal and the beautiful. Time and again, they choose hope. From an award-winning young poet following a great American tradition, "Ramshackle Ode"presents a new voice singing toward transcendence, offering the sense that, though this world is fragile, human existence is a wonderfully stubborn miracle of chance. These poems have earned their wisdom, and this book is a gift I happily hold in my hands. Maurice Manning It s kind of the hardest work, joy.Which makes "Ramshackle Ode" one of the hardest-working books I ve read in a long time. Ross Gay Leonard has come right in the nick of time to remind us that inside each our hearts thumps an ecstatic hot night of healing, and raise that tambourine! hallelujah be, there s still a song, goddamnit there s still a chance to sing. Rebecca Gayle Howell KEITH LEONARD s poems have appeared in "Best New Poets, ""Copper Nickel, " and "Gulf Coast, " and have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. A recipient of the Beacon Street Prize and scholarships from Bread Loaf and the Sewanee Writers Conference, Leonard is currently a visiting lecturer in creative writing at Indiana University."

Author Biography

Keith Leonard's poems have appeared in Best New Poets, Copper Nickel, Gulf Coast, and have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. A winner of the Beacon Street Prize and scholarships at Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conference, he is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Indiana University.