Poetry Books (Adults)

Unless otherwise noted, the books shown here are in print and available from any bookshop or from Amazon.com, BN.com, or any other on-line book dealer.

THAT SWING Poems 2008-2016 ISBN 978-1-4214-2244-2 New poems, serious and comic, with regular rhythms (the book’s title comes from “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”–Duke Ellington). Johns Hopkins University Press. 2017 Paperback, $19.95 Use code HTWN to save 20% Phone 1-800-537-5487 or hfscustserv@press.jhu.edu
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FITS OF CONCISION: Collected Poems of Six or Fewer Lines ISBN 978-0-9889352-2-8 At turns humorous and profound, this collection of more than 300 brief poems spans Kennedy’s writing career from 1955 to 2016. A sample, “Ars Poetica” goes: The goose that laid the golden egg Died looking up at her crotch To find out how her sphincter worked. Would you lay well? Don’t watch. Paperback edition only, $17.95 postpaid from the Grolier Book Shop, 6 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA 02116, phone (617) 547-4648.
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THE BESTIARY, OR PROCESSION OF ORPHEUS Guillaume ApollinaireTranslated, with an essay, by X. J. Kennedy Woodcuts by Raoul Dufy Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011 Paperback $19.95 ISBN 978-1-4214-0007-5 Hardcover $45.00 ISBN 978-1-4214-0006-8 Phone 1-800-537-5487 Or visit: www.press.jhu.edu E-mail hfscustserv@press.jhu.edu.
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IN A PROMINENT BAR IN SECAUCUS: New & Selected Poems 1955-2007 By X. J. Kennedy Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011Paperback $18.95 (UK: 12.50 pounds) ISBN 978-0-8018-8654-6 Hardcover $35.00 (UK: 23.50 pounds) ISBN 978-0-8018-8653-9 Phone 1-800-537-5487 E-mail hfscustserv@press.jhu.edu.
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PEEPING TOM’S CABIN: Comic Verse 1928-2008 By X. J. Kennedy BOA Editions, Ltd., September 2007 Paperback $17.00 ISBN 978-1-929918-96-6 Hardcover $22.00 ISBN 978-1-929918-95-9 (585) 546-3410 https://boaeditions.org/boastore/ Trade or bulk orders: Consortium 1-800-283-3572
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PEGASUS DESCENDING A Book of the Best Bad Verse Compiled by James Camp, X. J. Kennedy, and Keith Waldrop Reprint edition, Burning Deck, 2003 (originally published by Macmillan, 1971). ISBN 1-886224-68-4 Paperback, xviii + 238 pp.$10. Order from Small Press Distribution, 1-800-869-7553 or orders@spdbooks.org. (In the UK, from Spectacular Diseases c/o Paul Green, 83b London Road, Peterborough, Cambs. PE2 9BS.)
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THE LORDS OF MISRULE: Poems, 1992-2001 By X. J. Kennedy Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2002 ISBN 0-8018-7168-9 Paperbound edition only, $14.95 Can be ordered by calling 1-800-537-5487 This ample collection includes “A Curse on a Thief,” “The Purpose of Time,” “For Allen Ginsberg,” “The Ballad of Fenimore Woolson and Henry James,” “Sailors with the Clap,” “The Blessing of the Bikes,” and many more, all but one previously printed in The Atlantic, Sewanee Review, Hudson Review, Image, The New Criterion, Poetry, Texas Review, and in other good places and anthologies.
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DARK HORSES: NEW POEMS By X. J. Kennedy Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-8018-4485-1 Paperback, 73 pp. $14.95 Dark Horses reprints poems from The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Sewanee Review, and other magazines. It includes “Emily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World, Now That Her Homestead in Amherst Has an Answering Machine.”
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NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE Poems, Songs, A Ballad By X. J. Kennedy Reprint edition in Classic Contemporary Series, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1994 ISBN 0-88748-204-X Paperback, 71 pp $12.95 This title is distributed by Cornell University Press Services. To order, phone 800-666-2211.
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ARISTOPHANES’ LYSISTRADA A new English version by X. J. Kennedy in ARISTOPHANES, Volume 2 (The Penn Complete Greek Drama Series) Edited by David R. Slavitt & Palmer Bovie University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8122-1662-8 (paper) Paperback $17.95
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Out of print, but available from Amazon.com, BN.com, or other on-line book dealers:
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CROSS TIES: SELECTED POEMS By X. J. Kennedy ISBN 0-8203-0738-6 Paperback, 168 pp. (This is the original edition published by University of Georgia Press in 1985)
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TYGERS OF WRATH: Poems of Hate, Anger, and Invective collected and edited by X. J. Kennedy, wood engravings by Michael McCurdy ISBN 0-8203-0535-9 Hardcover, 282 pages (This is the original edition published by University of Georgia Press in 1981)
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Poetry Books (Adults)

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