Hold

"Bob Hicok is a spectrum... I'd love to see an MRI of his brain while he's writing, as the neurons show us what's possible, how a human can be a thought leader, taking us into the future... Hicok interrogates the world with mercy and wit and style and intelligence and modest swag. He's one of America's favorites--and to make the reader want to share the poet's reality fulfills poetry's finest aspiration." --Washington Independent Review of Books

"In his ninth collection, Hicok navigates a world bereft of empathy and kindness, leading by example with a charm and emotional intelligence that speaks to a deep insight into the human condition... Mixing cleverness with tenderness, Hicok demonstrates how to be a beacon of light in the darkest of settings." --Publishers Weekly

Bob Hicok's tenth collection of poetry, Hold, moves nimbly between childlike revelry and serious introspection. While confronting the rampant hypocrisies of the American collective unconscious, Hicok is guided by his deep and tender sense of whimsy and humility. Pointing to the natural world as a mirror through which to rediscover human beauty, he pauses to unapologetically celebrate the wonder of living at all.

From "About the size of it":

. . . my breath

shuttling in and out, as if it can't decide

between stay and go, the little bird

long gone by the time I realize

the sun has set and it will soon feel

like my father was never here, which is no big deal

compared to the erasures the world endures

and offers every day, except this one is mine

Bob Hicok teaches at Virginia Tech University and is the author of ten collections, including Animal Soul, This Clumsy Living, Elegy Owed, and Sex & Love &. He is the recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, respectively.