{"product_id":"the-final-voicemails-poems","title":"The Final Voicemails","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Even present tense has some of the grace of past tense, \/ what with all the present tense left to go.\" From Max Ritvo--selected and edited by Louise Glück--comes a final collection of poems fully inscribed with the daring of his acrobatic mind and the force of his unrelenting spirit.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDiagnosed with terminal cancer at sixteen, Ritvo spent the next decade of his life pursuing poetry with frenetic energy, culminating in the publication of \u003cem\u003eFour Reincarnations\u003c\/em\u003e. As with his debut, \u003cem\u003eThe Final Voicemails\u003c\/em\u003e brushes up against the pain, fear, and isolation that accompany a long illness, but with all the creative force of an artist in full command of his craft and the teeming affection of a human utterly in love with the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe representation of the end of life resists simplicity here. It is physical decay, but it is also tedium. It is alchemy, \"the breaking apart, \/ the replacement of who, when, how, and where, \/ with what.\" It is an antagonist--and it is a part of the self. Ritvo's poems ring with considered reflection about the enduring final question, while suggesting--in their vibrancy and their humor--that death is not merely an end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Final Voicemails\u003c\/em\u003e is an ecstatic, hopeful, painful--and completely breathtaking--second collection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Milkweed Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48957523951753,"sku":"9781571315113","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0376\/3057\/4729\/files\/imageloader_904587ff-fcf9-41a0-a6a3-b8c4222a37f5.jpg?v=1794328091","url":"https:\/\/thebookmarkpr.com\/products\/the-final-voicemails-poems","provider":"The Bookmark Books \u0026 Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}