Wild Track ― New and Selected Poems

The poems of Kevin Hart have nurtured international poetry audiences for nearly four decades. Translations of Hart’s work have appeared in Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, and Vietnamese, among other languages, and bear witness to the growing interest in Hart’s poetry both in the United States and abroad. This volume performs a valuable service by bringing together the best of Hart’s work from seven published collections, some of them now out of print, and from his forthcoming book,Barefoot. It allows us to take the measure of his art: the careful balance Hart achieves between mystery and the real, a balance that is spiritual yet visceral, learned yet passionate; and his ability to meld redemption and hope, “always present, whether in the simple pleasures and small dignities of life or the larger questionings and confrontations of death” (The Australian).

Wild Track reveals a poet capable of articulating genuine feeling and considerable philosophical depth. This volume confirms Hart’s standing as one of the most sophisticated poets writing today.

"Pondus meum amor meus—my weight is my love, writes Augustine, as he describes how love carries him wherever it will. The 'wild track' of Kevin Hart's new and selected poems seems akin to Augustine's path; it is a collection deeply pondered, yet as lightly formed as a new leaf curved by wind. He writes of 'a name within a name' and of 'a darkness in the dark' while everywhere the reader finds the life inside the life. His is a poetry of the 'should have said'—clear-eyed thoughts set to music, speakable only when fear has vanished, set forth without nostalgia or regret." —Susan Stewart

"Kevin Hart's poetry is lucid and accessible while giving voice to rich depths where mystery and being coalesce. It approaches the unapproachable, the impossible borders of experience, through praise and song, and sets the everyday experience of the real world in close proximity to a deeper world of spirit." —Michael Brennan, author ofThe Imageless World

"This splendid selection contains Kevin Hart's finest poetry. From the 'Ten Thousand Things' that calm the mind to the double loss of Eurydice we encounter the symbolism of 'Dark Bird,' where it becomes frightening to learn that 'finches are in blossom' either in a poem or a world. Hart's penetrating lucidity is dense with passionate knowledge, the lovely series of new poems entitled 'Sugar' are so lyrical you catch your breath when a sharp edge appears to cut away any sign of sentimentality. Hart is a master craftsman, he needs to be, so that his visionary imagination doesn't brim over—he travels along a wild track to enter the calm recording-time, so the reader's mind can 'move upon silence.' A great poet of the intellect but touched by his knowledge of love and the possibility, these days, of the soul." —Robert Adamson, author of Net Needle

Kevin Hart is the Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia. He is the author of ten volumes of poetry, includingMorning Knowledge (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011). He has received multiple prizes for his poetry, including the Christopher Brennan Award and the Grace Leven Prize for Poetry.