Odd Mercy: Poems

ISBN: 0393316300

Author: Stern, Gerald

Condition: Used

"For over two decades, no one has equaled Stern's compassionate, surreal parables about the burden of and the exaltation at being alive."-Library Journal The centerpiece of Gerald Stern's ninth collection is a long poem titled "Hot Dog," named for a beautiful street woman who lives in and around Tompkins Square Park. Other characters in this poem are St. Augustine, Walt Whitman, Noah, Gerald Stern himself, and a ninety-year-old black preacher from the Midwest. In "Hot Dog," and throughout, Stern wrestles with the issues-hope, memory, faith-that have always occupied him.