Tracing the days of the writer edging into middle age, the 888 poems presented in volume four of The Complete Poems of Louis Daniel Brodsky offer a glimpse into the frenzied life of a man compelled, by his discipline and inner passion, to capture the elements of his existence and explode them upon the page ... Startlingly honest and bristling with the energy of Brodsky's discontent, this book records the poet gaining momentum, as a writer, even as his personal life spirals out of control. --Time Being Books.

Poetry. Jewish Studies. "RABBI AUSCHWITZ is not so much a book about the historical Shoah as it is about the psyche of 'a Jew who died fifty years too soon' and who now considers his pen 'an oracular divining rod' that may or may not 'stave off spiritual asphyxia.' 'It's all about the darkness of the mantra/Which takes him away from himself,' and as we listen to the best poems here and observe 'toxic psychosis' that still desires a reason for being, we are appalled, complicit, nauseated, and gratefully ambivalent as we, by way of Brodsky's pounding and insistent voice, 'survive forgetting' to remember"--William Heyen.

Poetry. What mom doesn't recall the magical seasons surrounding the birth of her baby--the anticipation felt during pregnancy; the pain and pride, on delivering; the joy of watching her child grow? And what dad can forget saying to himself, upon first holding his infant, "I'm really a father now," with all the accompanying awareness of being responsible for another human being? Chronicling the development of his own firstborn, from her conception through age one, Louis Daniel Brodsky provides, for us all--from experienced parents to those who have yet to see that "gleam in the eye"--a window on that glorious time.

Poetry. Have a seat at a table or booth in Louis Daniel Brodsky's DINE-RITE: BREAKFAST POEMS. Everyone's welcome. As Brodsky puts it, this suburban diner is an "Oasis to the white- and blue-collar and the collarless: / Contractors, carpenters, painters, and plumbers, / Insurance and sales reps, cab drivers, loafers, / Grass-roots politicians, divorce lawyers, retirees, / The entire cast of the human drama, / Under one home-cooking-spoken-here roof." And overlording this melting pot is its owner, a corpulent, self-anointed Baptist minister, whose unique brand of evangelism permeates Dine-Rite as thoroughly as the greasy, smoky air that wafts from the kitchen. If you're hungry for poetry that both satisfies and leaves you wanting more, then you've come to the right place. Dig in!

In the small town of Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, Brodsky finds a full sense of love for the outdoors. He finds himself "Taking time to look and listen, see and hear." Poem after poem shares one man's alerted words for the American north country and for our journeying moods of mind and body, in this ever-changing natural world. AT WATER'S EDGE introduces us to Brodsky's own corner of nature and leaves us anticipating future visits, in the subsequent volumes of POEMS OF LAKE NEBAGAMON.

The third volume of THE SEASONS OF YOUTH celebrates the author's growing family, with the birth of a son. Father and mother revisit the daily joys and challenges of seeing a child flourish from infancy into the preschool years, while they marvel at their daughter's rapid physical and social development, as she progresses from age three to six and a half, exhibiting the first hints of who she'll be as an adult. In thirty-nine poems that poignantly dramatize the interweaving of four lives, Louis Daniel Brodsky shares myriad rituals of childrearing (bathing, meal time, school days, pets, playing, first words, getting ready for bed), all of which offer chances to experience the coming-of-age wonders of early maturation and the rites of initiation into love's simple complexities--opportunities to seize the sun and moon.

Fiction. GETTING TO UNKNOW THE NEIGHBORS is a collection of short fictions, by L. D. Brodsky, that presents the reader with one of the strangest casts of misfits in contemporary literature. Many of these characters dwell in an apartment building that seems to be located in a Kafkaesque twilight zone. GETTING TO UNKNOW THE NEIGHBORS is a true masterpiece of the bizarre.

Poetry. The second and third years of a child's life are filled with the extraordinary ordinary events that are steppingstone rites of passage: learning to walk and speak; reveling in play and mischief; enduring the travails of illness; growing familiar with the world beyond the house, where dogs, rabbits, and fireflies mesmerize curious eyes; taking part in adventures with mom and dad--vacations, holidays, visits to grandparents. In this second book of a five-volume series about his children, Louis Daniel Brodsky chronicles the progress of his daughter, as she grows by leaps and bounds, and the evolution of his family, which is soon to grow as well, with the birth of a second child.

Fiction. Short Stories. Meet the ordinary people who inhabit Louis Daniel Brodsky's neighborhood. There's the young man who becomes a tree, and the one who, thanks to magical seeds, becomes who he is. There's the open-heart-surgery patient whose chest cavity becomes the trash receptacle for the operating team. And just what do all these characters have in common? They have one foot in the funny farm, and they're candidates for the butterfly net. In other words, like Brodsky himself, they're folks "with one foot in the butterfly farm."

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