The poems of Reginald Shepherd s third book move among, mix, and manufacture stories, seeking to redefine the meaning of mythology. From the ruined representatives of Greek divinity (broken statues and fragmented stories), and the dazzling extravagances of predecessors like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, to the fleeting promises of popular music and the laconic demigods of the contemporary gay subculture, they sketch maps of a world in which desire may find a restless home. But desire leads the maps astray and maps mislead desire. The poems poems both enact language s powers to create a...

"Fata Morgana" mingles personal experience, history, mythology, politics, and natural science to explore the relationships of conception and perception, the self finding its way through a physical and social world not of its own making, but changing the world by its presence.

The late poet Reginald Shepherd corresponded for two years before his death with nature writer Alan Contreras. Song After All offers a new window into Shepherd's thoughts on writing, music, love and, ultimately, dealing with cancer. Wry, funny, painful, illuminating and glorious, this unique compilation of 120 personal messages, plus blog posts, poetic commentary and essays is a moving and entertaining memorial. Also contains essays by Shepherd's partner Robert Philen and by Evan Eisenberg, and includes the complete text of Fernando Pessoa's poem Antinous, written in English in 1918 and...