Almost Complete Poems

Praise

“Almost Complete Poems is Moss’s latest and longest attempt to establish his gifts as a poet. They are real, and they reflect his life and talents — his quest for spiritual strength, his Jewish heritage, his eye on Europe and European art, and his 91 years. Moss tries to write a kind of poetry that his American juniors rarely attempt: the first-person record of wisdom, jocular or weighty, gained in a moment or a lifetime, unguarded, openhearted, profuse. To read him at length is to encounter stacks of memories, anecdotes and would-be proverbs…” —Stephen Burt, The New York Times Book Review

“Magisterial … Almost Complete Poems is magnificent. I’ve read it several times with greater and greater pleasure. Its verbal generosity and bravura, its humanity, the quality and quantity of information which it integrates into poetry of the highest order make it a continuing delight.” —Marilyn Hacker 

“Open Almost Complete Poems anywhere, and you will come shockingly upon wisdom and beauty, a diversity of styles—a unity of voice, a voice that was there since the beginning. I love Stanley Moss’s work. The pace, the strategy, the wit, the knowledge are astonishing. I want to add that of the generation that is gradually leaving us, those born in the mid and late 1920s, Bly, Levine, Kinnell, Rich, Kumen, O’Hara, Cooper, Ferry, Ashbery, Merwin, Gilbert, Wright, myself, he has a prominent place. He loves donkeys. He owns Ted Roethke’s raccoon coat. He is an original.” —Gerald Stern

“As a whole, Stanley Moss’s “Almost Complete Poems” is magnificent. These poems are gorgeous examples of energy coupled with style. These poems also embody beauty in the service of wisdom. Moss delights us with his sensual and tender imagination. His erudition is astounding. Moss is a poet’s poet, and this volume is as necessary as air to the contemporary poetry scene.” —Sonja James, The Journal