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Wild Civility

 

Passionate, resilient, rich with wit and word play, these poems affirm David Biespiel’s increasing stature as a poet of remarkable accomplishment and promise.

 

David Biespiel’s long poetic lines crackle with rhythmic energy and a jazzy, bittersweet richness of language. "I’ve come to imagine the nine-line sonnet to be like one of those classic Thunderbirds," says Biespiel, "something distinctly American: wide, roomy, and with a robust engine." The civility of the poems is the form; the wildness is the bristling energy of the language.

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"The poems here shuffle between registers and tones, use deliberately mismatched diction . . . Biespiel's best in this untraditional vein are the ones with the clearest connection to lyric poetry.”  

— David Orr, Poetry​

 

"Biespiel is a true poetic innovator."

The Portland Mercury

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"[Wild Civility] demonstrates the poet's...sparse, free verse lyrics concerned with exterior landscape and quiet observation-smart counterpoints to Biespiel's reinvented sonnets. They allow the reader a moment to breathe, reflect, and appreciate the dynamic personality of Wild Cilivity."
Rain Taxi Review of Books

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"Like microprocessors, the poems in Wild Civility deliver an almost incalculable amount of information instantaneously. As a result, they demonstrate the pure and powerful recombinant energy of language that is the essence of lyric poetry." 

— Michael Collier, Director, Bread Loaf Writers Conference

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*****

Wild Civility

University of Washington Press

2003

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