Described by the late James Dickey as "one of the finest new poets to come along in years," Robert Wrigley fulfills that early promise with this, his newest collection. Reign of Snakes is a book about desire, the soul's desire as much as the body's. As Jane Hirshfield said of Wrigley's previous book, In the Bank of Beautiful Sins (Penguin, 1995), "To read it is to unpeel a little further into the human, and into the wideness that holds the human--a splendid gift." Reign of Snakes takes us to yet another level, deep into the daily devotions, "where the dark blows a kiss to night."

. . . a frigid day in February and a full-grownrattlesnake curled to a comma in the middle of the middle of the just-plowed road. Ice ghost, I think, curve of rock or stubbed-off branch. But the diamonds are there, under a dust of crystals looming, impossible, summer's tattoo, the mythical argyle of evil.

--from "Reign of Snakes"

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 06/01/1999
ISBN: 9780140589191
Pages: 112
Weight: 0.28lbs
Size: 8.99h x 5.98w x 0.33d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 05/31/1999 pg. 89
Library Journal 06/15/1999 pg. 82
Booklist 06/15/1999 pg. 1775
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/1999 pg. 1172