Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry: Dream Kitchen (Series #26) (Paperback)

Owen McLeod’s extraordinary debut maps the contours of an ordinary life: the rise and fall of romantic love, the struggle against mental illness, and the unending quest for meaning and transcendence. Ranging from sonnets and sestinas to experimental forms, these poems are unified by their musicality, devotion to craft, and openness of heart.

From “All Saints’ Eve”

From a La-Z-Boy abandoned
on the basketball court, I watched
you light up the KFC, part traffic
for the rush-hour ambulance, raise
weeds from asphalt cracks, cause rain
to come down like Adidas on me,
mofo of infinite faith. Trees
were your fingers, not prints or clues.
Never were you uppercase with me.