"Young's "Bender" is a book of survival and strength, of seeing even in the smallest things the heights of what we can be. That's as good a definition of contemporary poetry as any."NPR"This book reads like a long, breathless thank you for life's seemingly random jumble of beauty, strangeness, tenderness, and joy.""Los Angeles Times""The reader's mind shoots through [Young's poems] like the steel ball in a pinball machine, dinging around, racking up points. Dean's poems are amazingly fun.""BOMB""Bender" gathers the abundant treasure from Dean Young's twelve volumes. Strongly influenced by Surrealism, Young's poems flash with extravagant imagery, humorous speech, sly views of the quotidian, mercurial hip-shake shifts, and exposed nerves of heartache.From "Commencement Address": "I love you for shattering.Someone has to. Just as someonehas to announce inadvertentlythe end of grief or spring'ssplurge even as the bureaucrat'sspittoon overflows. Someone has to come outthe other end of the labyrinthsaying, What's the big deal?Someone has to spend all day staringat the data from outer spaceor separating the receiptsor changing the sheets in sour room after room.I like it when the end of the toilet paperis folded into a point.I like napkins folded into swansbecause I like wiping my mouth on swans"Dean Young has published twelve books of poetry, including finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and Griffin Award. He teaches at the University of Texas and lives in Austin."
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