David Kirby is the author of more than two dozen volumes of criticism, essays, children’s literature, and pedagogy. He has published 12 collections of poetry including The Biscuit Joint; Get Up, Please; The Ha-Ha, short-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize and The House on Boulevard St., a finalist for the National Book Award. His poetry has been featured in numerous anthologies, including several issues of Best American Poetry. Like Kirby’s previous collections More Than This (LSU Press) is shot through with the roadhouse fervor of early rock ‘n’ roll. Yet these rollicking poems also contain an oceanic feeling more akin to the great symphonies of Europe than the three-minute singles of the rock pioneers, as Kirby seeks to startle, to please, to unwind the knots that we get ourselves into and make it possible to being anew. Little goes unnoticed in these poems: death, love, friendship, food, religious ardor, and philosophical skepticism, nights on the town and quiet evenings at home are all present. In More Than This, Kirby takes readers back in time and out in space, offering quiet wisdom and a sense of the endless possibilities that are and life gives us all.
