With Mouths Open Wide: New and Selected Poems

By John Caddy

"Full of spondaic gravity and grit." --BRUCE BOND

Showcasing the fortitude and wisdom, the honey and fire, the jab and embrace of a master poet, With Mouths Open Wide is a landmark collection of more than three decades of writing.

Including work from John Caddy's previous five books as well as new poems drawn from his experiences recovering from a stroke, the sum total of this expansive career carefully mediates the balance of outside and inside, sequentially rebuilding a delicate web of cognition, identity, and perception. From the revulsion on a child's face as Caddy's recovering body struggles to walk, to the gift of a night nurse revealing her tattoo, these poems defy consolation in their consideration of mortality. Caddy engages readers with his acerbic wit, his base profundity, his downright honesty, and a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners attitude.

With the blinkers off, this poetic vision comprehends a fulsome picture of human, and animal, experience--a flawed and loved slideshow of the world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157131427X
• ISBN13: 9781571314277
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 7.9"